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Type: Article
Published: 2020-07-13
Page range: 511–522
Abstract views: 88
PDF downloaded: 4

A mid-Cretaceous female scale insect (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccomorpha) in Burmese amber

Department of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, OR 97331, U.S.A.
Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, Maryland, MD 20705, U.S.A.
U.S.D.A., Agricultural Research Service, Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Building 005-Room 004, 10300 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, MD 20705, U.S.A.
Hemiptera Coccoidea female coccoid fossils Myanmar scale insect taxonomy wax pencil

Abstract

A new genus and species of scale insect (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha) is described from a female specimen in mid-Cretaceous Burmese (Myanmar) amber. Fossil female scales are rare and the present species, described as Paleolepidotus macrocolus gen. et sp. n., has such an unusual assortment of morphological features that it could not be assigned to any particular extant or extinct family. The small, ferruginous specimen exhibits a series of long wax pencils that extend around the body, including the head. The antennae and legs are quite long compared to other extant and extinct scale fossils. Of special interest are the protruding eyes, and a conical-triangular rostrum arising from between the forelegs; the claws with bifid apices are also unique. The ovisac contains immature stages.

 

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