New stag beetle (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) from the Lower Cretaceous of Transbaikalia

Stag beetles (Scarabaeoidea, Lucanidae) are a relatively large family, comprising over 1,300 extant species (Fujita, 2010). The characteristic features of Lucanidae are the presence of geniculate antennae with a pectinate club and, often, modified mandibles in males. Depending on the authors’ opinions regarding the affiliation of Paralucanus mesozoicus Nikolajev to a separate family, three or four extinct subfamilies of Lucanidae are distinguished: Protolucaninae, Paralucaninae, Ceruchitinae and Litholampriminae (Qi et al., 2022). Lucanidae are well represented in the paleontological record, with about 30 fossil species known, including representatives of all four recent subfamilies Lucaninae, Lampriminae, Syndesinae and Aesalinae. (Yu et al., 2024).