Taylorius litoralis
Taylorius litoralis
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
- Turn a suitably complete specimen over. The long groove for the gently curved snout runs from the front thorax past the front leg sockets, across the middle thorax to the front of the rear thorax.
- Raised side walls border part of this channel between the front and middle leg sockets. The wing cases are almost parallel-sided, with rows of circular pits.
How to tell it apart
- In Camptorrhinites orarius, the snout channel ends just behind the front leg sockets, instead of extending across the middle thorax.
Be careful
- Compression can flatten the groove. A fragment preserving only pit rows on a wing case does not establish a species identification.
Summary
The collector H. E. Taylor helped uncover an extraordinary group of fossil insects along the Bognor Regis shore. One of the weevils found there was eventually named Taylorius litoralis in his honour. A largely complete adult, about 4.4 mm long, preserves an unusual arrangement: its curved snout fitted into a long channel beneath the thorax, sheltered between raised flanges.
This was a tiny land beetle preserved in marine London Clay. The fossil shows how its snout could be tucked beneath the body, but not which plant it fed upon or where its larvae developed. Other specimens preserve the rear body and wing cases, providing a fuller anatomical picture than one fossil alone. The species connects a distinctive piece of beetle anatomy with the people who first recognised the London Clay’s overlooked insects.
Diagnostic Features
- Deep median rostral channel continues from the prosternum across the mesosternum to the anterior part of the metasternum.
- Between the anterior and middle coxae, the rostral channel is laterally enclosed by a raised vertical flange.
- Rostrum is moderately slender, cylindrical and slightly curved, extending backwards to the level between the middle coxae when retracted.
- First and second abdominal ventrites together are about twice as long medially as the third to fifth ventrites combined.
- Elytra are elongate and nearly parallel-sided without tubercles; the third stria has about thirty-three large circular punctures that decrease in size towards the apex.
Fossil Details
Similar Species
Recorded Fossil Sites
No fossil-site occurrences have yet been recorded for this species.
Diagnostic Sources
Britton (1960), pp. 41–42, pl. 6, figs 3–4: original genus and species diagnosis. The rostral channel continues across the mesosternum to the front of the metasternum, unlike Camptorrhinites orarius, where it ends behind the front coxae. Compression may obscure the channel; elytral pits alone are not diagnostic.
- 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