The first Mesozoic Leptopodidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Leptopodomorpha), from Canadian Late Cretaceous amber

Abstract

A new genus and species of leptopodid bug, Cretaceomira phalanx McKellar and Engel, is described from Canadian Late Cretaceous (Campanian) amber originating near Grassy Lake, in southern Alberta, Canada. This new record is the first described for the family within the Mesozoic, extending their fossil range by at least 26 Ma. The discovery adds further support to the idea that the subfamily was once much more widespread than its modern, relict distribution in the tropics – adding an occurrence in warm temperate conditions, on the western side of Laurentia (in the modern Palearctic). Beyond confirming the presence of the lineage in the Cretaceous, their expanded distribution suggests that the group is likely to be found in other Cretaceous amber deposits. Furthermore, the distinctive disk-shaped amber nodule that contains the C. phalanx holotype provides limited support for the interpretation of Leptosaldinae as subcortical inhabitants of resin-producing trees as early as the Cretaceous.http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E324DF2B-8D99-42B3-BBAC-8F9DC3603490

Keywords::

• Leptopoidea
• Grassy Lake amber
• fossil insect
• Campanian
• biogeography

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Brandon Strilisky and James Gardner for assistance with the TMP collection, and two anonymous reviewers and Yuri Popov for comments that improved the original manuscript greatly.

Additional information

Funding

Support was provided by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship (to RCM) and U.S. National Science Foundation [grant number EF-0341724 and DEB-0542909] (to MSE). This study is a contribution of the Division of Entomology, University of Kansas Natural History Museum.