Fossil Cantharidae from the Cretaceous Burmese (Kachin) amber of the Patrick Müller collection, and taxonomic information

We describe a new genus of soldier beetle, Vitalfranzius gen. nov., and 24 new fossil species from Cretaceous Burmese (Kachin) amber: Burmomiles parisii sp. nov., Burmomiles volpei sp. nov., Elektrokleinia thiloi sp. nov., Elektrokleinia zahradniki sp. nov., Hukawngichthyurus barsevskisi sp. nov., Hukawngichthyurus ditaddeoi sp. nov., Sanaungulus dominikiweissbachi sp. nov., Sanaungulus dunlopi sp. nov., Sanaungulus electrum sp. nov., Sanaungulus franziskaeweissbachae sp. nov., Sanaungulus havai sp. nov., Sanaungulus kachinensis sp. nov., Sanaungulus kirstenaeweissbachae sp. nov., Sanaungulus leniae sp. nov., Sanaungulus myanmaricus sp. nov., Sanaungulus myitkyinaensis sp. nov., Sanaungulus nalae sp. nov., Sanaungulus nilsi sp. nov., Sanaungulus perkovskyi sp. nov., Sanaungulus peteriruedeli sp. nov., Sanaungulus temporiscapsula sp. nov., Sanaungulus ypogaeum sp. nov., Vitalfranzius burmiticus sp. nov., and Vitalfranzius cretaceus sp. nov. The evolution, characteristics and pecularities of fossil soldier beetles embedded in Burmese amber are also discussed. The original attribution of soldier beetles in Burmese amber to the subfamily Cantharinae is confirmed, so the attribution to the subfamily Silinae is definitively rejected. Other taxonomic acts present in this document are: Palaeocantharis Hsiao, Y. Li, Ren & Pang, 2021 = Elektrokleinia Ellenberger & Fanti, 2019 syn. nov.; Elektrokleinia panna (Hsiao, Y. Li, Ren & Pang, 2021) comb. nov.; Elektrokleinia oblongoculus (Y. Yang, Bai & W. Zhang, 2021) comb. nov.; Elektrokleinia bilineatimaculata (Y. Yang, Geiser & H. Liu, 2021) comb. et decl. nov. Furthermore, we document that Sanaungulus dominikiweissbachi is the first Burmese fossil soldier beetles preserved during mating. We also note that the red coloration of the pronotum of Sanaungulus ruficollis Y. Yang, H. Liu & W. Zhao in Yang et al., 2022 is due to the amber and is not a real and natural color of the specimen.