Biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in Eocene Baltic amber from the Rovno region (Ukraine)

Abstract

The paper presents the results of an examination of 714 biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) preserved in Baltic amber from the Rovno deposits in Ukraine. A new species - Leptoconops rovnensis sp. n. - is described and illustrated. 29 of the fossil species reported here have already been described from other deposits of Baltic amber: 26 of these were also found in amber from the Gulf of Gdańsk and 18 in amber from Bitterfeld (Saxony). The most common genera of biting midges in Ukrainian amber are also found in amber from Bitterfeld and the Gulf of Gdańsk, and with very much the same frequencies. The results indicate that the faunas of Ceratopogonidae enclosed in amber from Rovno, Bitterfeld and the Baltic are very similar, showing that they inhabited similar palaeoenvironments in the same palaeogeographic region.