The Tubuai Bark-gnawing Beetle was described in 2020, it is known from subfossil remains, including a head, parts of another head, a left mandible, at least one complete elytron as well as additional elytral fragments, and a incomplete prothorax, all recovered from sediment core samples taken at the Mihiru Swamp on the island of Tubuai in the Austral Islands.
These remains can be dated to an age of about 2500 to 2000 BP..
The Tubuai Bark-gnawing Beetle might have been the largest member of its genus, its size has been reconstructed to have been about 1,57 cm in length, which clearly sets it apart from the congeneric and sympatric Mihiura Bark-gnawing Beetle (Tenebroides mihiura Kolibáč & Porch). [1]
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References:
[1] Jiří Kolibáč; Milada Bocakova; James K. Liebherr; Thibould Ramage; Nick Porch: Extinct and extant Pacific Trogossitidae and the evolution of Cleroidea (Coleoptera) after the Late Triassic biotic crisis. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 20: 1-37. 2020
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edited: 02.11.2020