New fossil paussids from Dominican amber with notes on the phylogenetic systematics of the paussine complex (Coleoptera, Carabidae)

The first fossil representative of the Protopaussinae and the second fossil Eohomopterus (Paussinae) are described from amber inclusions of Tertiary age collected in the Dominican Republic on the West Indian island of Hispaniola (Protopaussus pristinus sp.n., Eohomopterus poinari sp.n.). These finds increase the total number of paussids present in Dominican amber to four species in three genera (Protopaussus, Eohomopterus, Homopterus). A key is provided for the identification of the New World genera of Protopaussinae and Paussinae and for the species of Eohomopterus. Based on synapomorphic character states, the paussid beetles are split into two subfamilies, the monobasic Protopaussinae and the more inclusive Paussinae (the twenty-three genera are placed into two supertribes: the Carabidomemnitae comprising two tribes and the Paussitae comprising eight tribes. The extant congeners of Eohomopterus and Homopterus live in the Neotropical Region, while the extant members of Protopaussus are known only from the Oriental Region. This record of New World Tertiary Protopaussus adds another example of the Old World relationships of taxa from Dominican amber. The temporal and geographical distribution of Protopaussus indicates that its present zoogeographical range may represent the relict of a wide Laurasian distribution in the past. It does not support the previously suspected Oriental centre of origin for the ancestral stock of {Protopaussinae + Paussinae}.