Fossil arthropods in Late Cretaceous Vendean amber (northwestern France)

A new species of fossil ray spider, Baalzebub? mesozoicum n. sp. (Araneae: Theridiosomatidae), is described from Mesozoic amber from the Cretaceous (Middle Cenomanian to Early Santonian) deposits of La Garnache, Vendée, NW France. The palpal structures, especially the highly sclerotized claw-shaped retrolateral ‘paracymbium’ originating as an outgrowth of the cymbium basally and the basal cymbial lamella, are considered sufficient to make a tentative placement of the new fossil species in the extant genus Baalzebub Coddington, 1986.