Lutago nanus
Lutago nanus
View age-specific evidence and explanation
There are no currently eligible, unambiguously age-indexed published Occurrences for this Species. This does not indicate absence or rarity.
These counts describe published LBPS Occurrence records with directly assigned, unambiguous geological-unit mappings—not specimen abundance. Records at restricted Localities and ambiguous or unsupported ages are excluded. Species-level age labels are not used as proof of an age-specific Occurrence.
Specimen-based rarity requires comparable, correctly identified physical fossils, geological provenance and publication permissions. It does not estimate your chance of finding a fossil or collecting access.
Quick Identification
What to look for
- The nearly complete type fossil measures about 2.35 mm. Look for deep, widely visible pits on the upper thorax and underside of the hindbody.
- Follow the pit rows on a wing case from the base to the tip: they start especially coarse and become smaller towards the rear. The row nearest the seam contains about 18 pits in the described fossil.
How to tell it apart
- Lutago fetosus has finer, more even punctures rather than this strong base-to-tip change.
Be careful
- Surface wear removes the strongest distinction. A fragment that cannot show the changing pit size is not a secure species identification.
Summary
Britton chose a name meaning “dwarf” for Lutago nanus, and the nearly complete fossil on which it was founded is only about 2.35 mm long. The delicate adult survived in enough detail to show a head, thorax and wing cases, whereas many related London Clay beetles are known mainly from isolated rear bodies. Several additional specimens preserve pieces of the same tiny form.
Its close relative Lutago fetosus was also small, but the tiny pits in the hardened shell of L. nanus are unusually coarse and change in size along the wing cases. Those details help scientists distinguish two species that might otherwise look very alike. Their actual host plants and habits remain unknown; the fossils give us a precise view of their bodies, not a direct record of their lives.
Diagnostic Features
- Pronotum and ventral hindbody bear coarse deep punctures spaced at roughly their own diameter.
- Elytral strial punctures are very coarse on the basal half and become progressively smaller towards the apex.
- Sutural elytral stria contains about eighteen punctures, while the intervals carry only fine sparse punctures.
- Pronotum narrows anteriorly and is widest near the posterior angles, with a width of about 0.85 mm against a median length of about 0.5 mm in the holotype.
- Basal margin of the pronotum is sinuate and carries a broad rounded median projection.
Fossil Details
Similar Species
Recorded Fossil Sites
No fossil-site occurrences have yet been recorded for this species.
Diagnostic Sources
Britton (1960), p. 39, pl. 5, figs 3–4: original diagnosis and explicit comparison with Lutago fetosus. Deep, coarse puncturation and elytral punctures becoming smaller from base to apex are important in combination. The approximately 2.35 mm length refers to the nearly complete holotype.
- Britton, E. B. (1960). Beetles from the London clay (Eocene) of Bognor Regis, Sussex. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geology, 4(2), 27–50 View reference
References
- Britton, E. B. (1960). Beetles from the London clay (Eocene) of Bognor Regis, Sussex. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geology, 4(2), 27–50 View reference
- Legalov, A. A. (2020). Fossil History of Curculionoidea (Coleoptera) from the Paleogene. Geosciences, 10(9), 358 View reference