Discovery of the Smallest Lace Bug from Mid-Cretaceous of Northern Myanmar Supports the Hypothesis of a Miniaturization Phenomenon of Insects in Kachin Amber (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Tingidae)

Abstract

A total of 14 species in seven tingid genera have been described from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese (Kachin) amber from northern Myanmar, with very distinct paleofauna. Here, a new species of a new genus, Burmavianaida anomalocapitata gen. et sp. nov., is described from Kachin amber. This new species can be readily distinguished from the other described tingid taxa by the apparently smaller body and the structures of the pronotum and hemelytron. Burmavianaida gen. nov. shares the diagnostic characters with two clades composed of three extant subfamilies (Cantacaderinae + Tinginae) and Vianaidinae and may represent an extinct clade distinct from them. To the best of our knowledge, B. anomalocapitata sp. nov. is the smallest species of Tingidae among over 2600 described species. Our new finding supports the hypothesis of the miniaturization phenomenon of insects in Kachin amber, as suggested by previous studies.

New Fossil Tingidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from the Mid-Cretaceous of Myanmar, with Remarks on the Phylogenetic Relationships within the Family

“…To date, there are eight genera with 16 species of Tingidae from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. But the placement of six Cretaceous genera is still uncertain; they exhibit a combination of characters of the subfamilies or tribes [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”