Etymology: The new genus is dedicated to Francesco Manti, entomologist at the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, for his extraordinary passion for entomology and as a sign of deep friendship; with the addition of the name of the genus Malthinus Latreille, 1806. Gender: masculine.

Type species: Mantimalthinus balticus sp. nov. The genus is at present monotypic.

Diagnosis: The new genus can be attributed with certainty to the subfamily Malthininae for the habitus and maxillary palps unequal in length with the last segment globular and with pointed apex. The combination of distinctive characters of the new genus is as follows: head rounded back to the eyes and equipped by sparse punctation; pronotum transverse strongly bordered at the hind margin, in particular at the angles; elytra long, wrinkled, without impressed punctuation and without traces of ridges, leaving uncovered only the last urite (which appears like a caudal appendix); metacoxae not elongated; tibial spurs absent; trochanter III very elongated (in all other genera is rounded or rounded with narrow and short lobe stretched backwards). The combination of these characters is not present in any known genus. Only Malthinellus matlickyi Wittmer, 1997, of Thailand, is similar to the new taxon, but it differs for presenting elytra with traces of ridges, head posteriorly slightly narrowed, legs with tibial spurs and pronotum differently shaped.

Etymology : From the Latin “baltius” = Baltic. Named in reference to the locality.

Holotype : Probably male, specimen included in Baltic amber, Artur R. Michalski leg., deposited at the Museo Civicodi Paleontologia e Scienze Naturali dell'Aspromonte (Bova, Italy).

Type locality : Poland: Baltic Sea coast, Gdansk (Danzig) Bay, estuary of Wisla (Vistula) River.

Type horizon : Eocene: Lutetian: 48.6–40.4 Ma — Priabonian: 37.2–33.9 Ma.

Diagnosis : The species described herein is defined by the set of characters indicated above. Only Malthinellus malickyi Wittmer, 1997 of Thailand, seems to be morphologically close, but Mantimalthinus balticus is distinguished by the brown-dark uniform color instead of yellowish-orange, pronotum more transverse with the sides narrowed in the middle and the posterior margin highly bordered at the angles, the absence of tibial spurs, the head rounded and not slightly and gradually narrowed posteriorly, the last segment of maxillary and labial palps more pointed and the lack of traces of ridges on the elytra, while Malthinellus malickyi presents three indistinct ridges in the front half (Geiser, personal communication). Both species have elongated elytra that leave uncovered the last abdominal segment, into a kind of caudal appendage.

Description : Adult, probably male (for the last ventrite strongly elongated and narrowed), winged, dark-brown. Body length: about 3.9 mm; elytra: 3.0 mm; antennal length: 2.1– 2.2 mm. Head blackish, completely exposed, large but slightly narrower than the pronotum, rounded, with numerous rough points scattered and shallow. Eyes black, small, round. Maxillary palps 4-segmented with palpomeres of different lengths, and with the last segment globular and pointed; third and last article of the labial palps also globular and strongly pointed. Antennae filiform, 11-segmented, dark blackish-brown, rather short and slightly over reaching the first third of the elytra, shortly pubescent, very long scape, reaching the front margin of pronotum and becoming strongly thickened from the half of its length up to the apex, antennomere II about two times shorter than the scape and also thickened towards the apex, antennomere III filiform and slightly longer than the second, antennomeres IV–VIII subequal, very long and almost 1/3 longer than the antennomere III, antennomeres IX–X long as the third, the antennomere XI very long and of the same length of antennomeres IV–VIII. Pronotum transverse about 1.3 times as wide as long, blackish, narrower than the elytra, covered with sparse and short pubescence, with the front margin slightly bordered and the hind margin strongly bordered, in particular at the angles that are wide and flattened, sides slightly narrowed in the middle, the hind part of the pronotum is wider than the anterior one. Scutellum large, triangular, without pointed apex but truncated. Elytra blackish, long, almost completely covering the abdomen (only the last urite remains uncovered), with parallel sides and strongly rounded apex, the whole surface roughly wrinkled, with long hairs and without traces of ridges. Metathoracic wings present but covered almost entirely by the elytra, remaining discovered only a lateral part of the right wing. Metasternum subquadrate, posteriorly enlarged and pubescent; all ventral segments dark reddish-brown and covered by short pubescence in the apical part, the first sterinites are quite broad and are followed by a very elongated last sternite with semi-rounded apex; last tergite small, slightly elongated, lobe shaped protruding from the elytra. Legs dark brown-reddish, short, with numerous and thick hairs; femurs short and slightly enlarged; tibiae cylindrical without spurs; metacoxae rounded; trochanter III very long and apically narrowed; tarsi pentamerous, first metatarsomere 1.5 times as long as the second metatarsomere, the third metatarsomere subequal to the second, the fourth bilobed and the fifth small and almost divided into two parts with the first in the shape of small subquadrate lobe and the second very thin; claws simple.

Syninclusions : None.

Remarks : The amber matrix is fairly transparent and the inclusion is complete, with only the not clearly visible mandibles.