The holotype was collected by local people in the Hukawng Valley of Myitkyina District, Kachin State, northern Myanmar. Its amber-bearing layer occurs 2–15 m below the surface. Uranium-lead dating of zircons from the volcanoclastic matrix surrounding the amber placed the deposit in the early Cenomanian. The fossil is housed at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology in China under inventory number NIGP 203445.

This was a morphological taxonomic study based on one inclusion rather than a population-level survey. The specimen was examined under incident and transmitted light with a stereomicroscope, measured with an ocular micrometer, photographed using stereomicroscope and digital microscope systems, and illustrated with line drawings produced through an attached drawing tube. Morphological terminology largely followed the classifications of Kristensen. Because the specimen consists of a single female, the study could evaluate individual structures but could not assess variation within the species or genus.

The female is completely preserved in a flattened, oval amber piece measuring 17 mm. Its right wings overlap and conceal the body in the illustrated position, leaving the head, thorax and abdomen visible mainly in lateral view. The moth had a body length of 4.0 mm and forewing length of 4.2 mm. Its antennae were long, approximately three-quarters of wing length, and comprised 44 flagellomeres. The legs had a spur formula of 0.4.4, while the forelegs possessed epiphyses bearing small denticles.

Both wing pairs were broad and densely covered with overlapping scales, including elongate, club-shaped scales along the margins and scattered erect piliform scales. The forewing subcostal vein was apically forked, the median vein was three-branched, and the forewing lacked a pterostigma. The hindwing retained a median cell. The fossil also possessed long, non-reduced labial palpi, a feature contrasted with the reduced palpi of the living genus Heterobathmia.

Without a view of the genitalia, the authors stated that the fossil would have keyed out as Micropterigidae in existing identification systems. The decisive structure was genital segment IX, which is large and triangular in lateral view, tapers toward small distal lobes and bears a narrow, elongate ventral depression containing the genital orifice. This configuration was considered characteristic of Heterobathmiidae and distinct from females of Micropterigidae, Agathiphagidae and basal Glossata. On that basis, the new taxon was assigned to the family tentatively.

Comparison with Heterobathmia pseuderiocrania revealed a mixture of ancestral and derived states. Preheterobathmia retained long labial palpi, two pairs of mid-tibial spurs, a forked forewing subcostal vein, separate R4 and R5 veins in both wings and 44 antennal flagellomeres, compared with 26 in Heterobathmia. Conversely, the fossil lacked a forewing pterostigma, median cell and jugum, structures present in the living genus. The authors interpreted the fossil’s broader wings, reflected in a higher wing index, as a possible ancestral condition and suggested that Preheterobathmia may have existed before the lineage shifted toward a leaf-mining larval lifestyle. This ecological interpretation remains inferential because the fossil provides no direct evidence of larval biology.

The Myanmar occurrence expands the known historical range of Heterobathmiidae. Its living species are restricted to Chile and Argentina, principally between 39° and 43° south latitude and 600–1,400 m elevation on both sides of the Andes, and their larvae mine leaves of Nothofagus. The fossil may indicate a wider ancestral distribution and challenge the family’s treatment as a temperate South American endemic. However, the authors also emphasized that post-Pangaean processes, including continental movement, terrane displacement or dispersal, could have shaped the family’s intercontinental history. The disjunct distribution of the younger Neopseustidae provides a parallel in which range formation occurred after Pangaea began breaking apart.

The new genus completes the fossil representation of the three extant non-glossatan families at the same Myanmar locality. Micropterigidae had long been known from Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits, while the first fossil agathiphagid was described from Myanmar amber in 2021. The Preheterobathmia finding adds a Cretaceous heterobathmiid from the same region. Its principal limitation is the evidence available from one amber inclusion: although the female genitalia support the proposed relationship, other diagnostic features of the family are concealed or cannot be assessed, and the broader evolutionary and biogeographic implications require further testing.

Subject of Research: Description and tentative family assignment of a Cretaceous non-glossatan moth from Myanmar amber

Article Title:  Preheterobathmia gen. nov. – a new non-glossatan taxon from Myanmar amber tentatively assigned to Heterobathmiidae ( Insecta , Lepidoptera )

Article References: Mey, W. (2024). Preheterobathmia gen. nov. – a new non-glossatan taxon from Myanmar amber tentatively assigned to Heterobathmiidae (Insecta, Lepidoptera). Nota Lepidopterologica, 47, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3897/nl.47.111080

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/nl.47.111080

Keywords: Preheterobathmia grimaldii, Heterobathmiidae, non-glossatan moths, Myanmar amber, Cretaceous fossils, Lepidoptera, female genitalia, taxonomic description, historical biogeography, Preheterobathmia, non-glossatan, taxon

Elcanidae are an extinct family of Orthoptera with a predominantly Mesozoic fossil record and only singular putative occurrences from the Permian and Paleocene, according to the study. The family comprises two subfamilies, Elcaninae and Archelcaninae, distinguished in part by forewing venation: distal fusion of the veins 1A, CuPb and CuPaβ indicates placement in Elcaninae, whereas the absence of that fusion supports Archelcaninae. Burmese amber has become an important source of information on the family’s diversity, morphology and ecology.

The authors examined two amber specimens housed at the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change in Hamburg. The exact discovery site is uncertain: the material came either from a mine near Tanai village in Kachin State or from a site near Hkamti village in Sagaing Division. Tanai amber is estimated to be 98.79 ± 0.62 million years old, while Hkamti amber is approximately 110 million years old, a difference of about 10 million years. The authors also note ethical concerns involving mining conditions in Myanmar and the possibility that fossil purchases may contribute to the country’s civil war.

Specimens were photographed with a Canon EOS 5Dsr camera fitted with a 65 mm lens, using magnification of 1× and 1.5×, and individual images were stacked to combine focal planes. Researchers then prepared interpretive drawings and added scale bars and image collections. The study’s taxonomic treatment follows the Orthoptera Species File, while wing-venation terminology follows the system described by Béthoux and Nel. Because the two amber sites differ in age and the precise origin of each specimen is uncertain, the fossils cannot be assigned to a single confidently dated horizon.

The male holotype of P. inversa, specimen GPIH07021, preserves parts of the pronotum, wings, abdomen and one metathoracic leg. Its preserved body length is 6.25 mm, its forewing is 14 mm long and its hindwing is 13.1 mm long. Distal fusion of CuPaβ, CuPb and 1A supports assignment to Elcaninae. The species is distinguished by two dark, round hindwing spots and a dark hindwing margin. The spots are 1.1 mm wide, measuring 1.2 mm and 0.84 mm in height, while the dark band reaches a maximum width of 2.5 mm. Its name derives from the Latin invertere, meaning “to invert” or “turn around,” in reference to this unusual wing coloration.

Additional features of P. inversa include a posteriorly pointed pronotum, a 6.8 mm metafemur, a 5.3 mm metatibia with nine small proximal denticles, and three pairs of ensiform metatibial spurs measuring approximately 0.7–1 mm. Its cerci are not setulose and terminate in hair-like tips. The inverted placement of the prominent wing markings is unusual within Elcanidae, although the authors note that comparable hindwing spotting occurs in Pterochroza ocellata and that many Oedipodinae have brightly colored hindwings with dark markings.

One unusual venation feature led the authors to reconsider the taxonomic value of the position of the RP stem. In the P. inversa specimen, it lies posterior to the second branch of MA1, whereas Panorpidium and Pseudopanorpidium are usually characterized by an RP stem between the two MA1 branches. Citing variation in this feature among Jurassic elcanids from Germany reported by Zessin in 1987, the authors argue that the diagnoses of Panorpidium and Pseudopanorpidium should permit the stem to occur either between MA1 branches or posterior to the second MA1 branch. They further suggest that Probaisselcana and Pseudoprobaisselcana may need reconsideration as possible synonyms, depending on how much intraspecific variation is accepted.

The second taxon, Thagyaminana atawedeia, is represented by the well-preserved female holotype GPIH07022. Its body length is about 7.8 mm, measured from the tip of the head to the base of the ovipositor, and its forewing is 13.5 mm long. The species has unfused 1A, CuPb and CuPaβ veins, placing it in Archelcaninae. Its forewing contains two central dark spots, with the anterior one larger than the posterior one at 1.6 versus 1.16 mm in height. Other diagnostic features include a broad, rounded posterior pronotum, leaf-like metatibial spurs, a 7.3 mm sword-shaped ovipositor and a long hindwing margin between CuPb and CuPaβ bearing numerous regular cross veins.

The genus name combines Thagyamin, the Buddhist god and king of heaven in Burmese tradition, with the commonly used elcanid ending “elcana.” The species name refers to tàwədèɪɰ̃ðà, the Burmese name of one of the heavens in Buddhist cosmology, and is intended as a homage to the specimen’s geographic origin and Theravada Buddhism. The description illustrates how amber can preserve combinations of coloration, wing venation, leg structure and reproductive anatomy that help distinguish fossil elcanids. However, both conclusions rest on one specimen per new taxon, and uncertainty about the precise mines and differing ages of the amber limit species-level conclusions about their exact paleoecological setting.

Subject of Research: Taxonomic description of two new Elcanidae from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber

Article Title: Two new members of the Elcanidae ( Insecta , Orthoptera ) from mid-Cretaceous amber

Article References: Schall, O.-K. O., Kotthoff, U., & Husemann, M. (2026). Two new members of the Elcanidae (Insecta, Orthoptera) from mid-Cretaceous amber. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 35(1), 63-68. https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.35.140770

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/jor.35.140770

Keywords: Elcanidae, fossil insects, Orthoptera, Myanmar amber, Cretaceous fossils, taxonomy, wing venation, archelcaninae, elcaninae, members, Insecta, mid-Cretaceous

Stag beetles, known scientifically as Lucanidae, are among the most recognizable insects on Earth. With roughly 1,800 living species in 145 genera, they are found across all major zoogeographical regions but are especially abundant in the tropics of Southeast Asia. Many adult males sport enormous, antler-like mandibles that they use to wrestle rivals for mates and food — weapons that can push the total body length of the largest species to 120 millimeters. Against that backdrop, the discovery of stag beetles barely three millimeters long is startling. The smallest living aesaline stag beetles reach about three millimeters, but no extinct lucanid of comparable size had ever been reported before now.

The new study, led by a researcher at the Hokkaido University Museum in Sapporo, Japan, describes four lucanid specimens preserved in amber from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin State. All four belong to the primitive subfamily Aesalinae, considered one of the earliest diverging lineages within the stag beetle family tree. One specimen represents a new species of the genus Protonicagus, named Protonicagus mandibularis for its unusual mandible shape. A second represents an entirely new genus and species, Cretognathus minutissimus — the species name is Latin for

The miniature dimensions of these ancient beetles carry real scientific weight. Amber, as a preservation medium, tends to favor small organisms, since larger and stronger insects can often tear themselves free of sticky resin before it engulfs them. Stag beetles, with their robust bodies and powerful musculature, are precisely the kind of insects one would expect to escape entrapment, which helps explain why only nine lucanid species had previously been described from amber deposits anywhere in the world. The fact that the newly reported specimens are so small may therefore reflect both a genuine biological signal — a Cretaceous trend toward miniaturization in several unrelated beetle lineages — and the filtering effect of the fossil record itself. Either way, the discovery suggests that the true diversity of Mesozoic stag beetles is likely underestimated, with tiny species slipping through the net of both preservation and study.

The four specimens also illuminate the biogeographic history of the group. Three of the new fossils belong to the tribe Ceratognathini, a group whose living members are restricted today to Australia and South America — southern landmasses that once formed part of Gondwana. Their presence in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar fits a broader pattern in which the Kachin amber fauna contains numerous lineages with Gondwanan affinities. The Burma Terrane, the landmass that carried the Hukawng Valley forests during the Cretaceous, is thought to have drifted as an island arc before colliding with Asia, and its biota preserves traces of these ancient southern connections. The fourth specimen, Protonicagus mandibularis, belongs to the tribe Nicagini, whose modern representatives live in the Northern Hemisphere, adding a contrasting distributional thread to the assemblage.

Amber fossils offer advantages over the compressed impressions that make up most of the stag beetle fossil record. Roughly thirty fossil lucanid species have been described worldwide, but most are known from impression fossils in sedimentary rocks, where fine details of the exoskeleton are crushed or lost. Amber, by contrast, can preserve delicate structures such as antennae, tarsi, and mouthparts in three dimensions, allowing direct comparison with living species. The earliest known stag beetle, Juraesalus atavus, comes from Middle Jurassic deposits of Inner Mongolia dating to around 165 million years ago, and several aesaline impression fossils are known from the Lower and Upper Cretaceous of China and Kazakhstan. But the Kachin amber specimens, preserved near the Albian–Cenomanian boundary about 99 million years ago, now constitute the richest single source of Mesozoic lucanid diversity, with nine species described from this deposit alone.

The systematic placement of the new fossils touches on an unresolved debate in stag beetle classification. Aesalinae, the subfamily to which all four specimens belong, is generally regarded as one of the early diverging branches of Lucanidae, and its members retain several primitive features, including undivided eyes, small mandibles, and partially or non-geniculate antennae. Yet molecular studies have produced conflicting results about whether Aesalinae as currently defined forms a natural group, with some analyses suggesting that the tribe Nicagini lies outside the rest of the subfamily. The elusive phylogenetic position of Nicagini — small beetles whose living relatives inhabit sandy shores and dunes rather than decaying wood — remains one of the puzzles of lucanid evolution, and each new fossil specimen bearing on this lineage is valuable for testing competing hypotheses.

The new species themselves display distinctive anatomy. Protonicagus mandibularis, at 3.78 millimeters including mandibles, joins its previously described congener Protonicagus tani as the second species of a genus otherwise known only from Kachin amber. Cretognathus minutissimus, at just 2.83 millimeters, becomes the smallest known stag beetle of all, edging out two additional Ceratognathini specimens that measure 2.78 and 2.72 millimeters but are too incompletely preserved for confident generic assignment. These measurements place the fossils well below the lower size range of most living aesalines, which typically reach up to ten millimeters, and far below the giant tropical lucanines that dominate the family’s modern diversity.

Miniaturization among Kachin amber beetles is not unique to stag beetles. Several unrelated lineages from the same deposit show similarly reduced body sizes, hinting at ecological pressures in the Cretaceous forests of the Burma Terrane that favored small body plans — perhaps the exploitation of microhabitats within decaying wood, leaf litter, or bark crevices. For saproxylic insects like lucanids, whose larvae feed on deadwood at various stages of decomposition, small size may have opened ecological opportunities unavailable to larger relatives. The pattern also raises questions about how the exaggerated mandibles of male stag beetles, so prominent in modern species, evolved in lineages whose entire bodies were smaller than the mandibles of their living descendants.

The discovery underscores how much of the deep-time diversity of familiar insect groups remains hidden. Stag beetles are among the most intensively collected and studied beetle families, yet a single amber deposit has now doubled the known Mesozoic species count and revealed body sizes never before recorded for the family. As more Kachin amber specimens are examined with modern imaging techniques, further surprises — including additional miniature lineages and clearer resolution of early lucanid relationships — seem likely to emerge from the ancient resin.

Subject of Research: Paleontology

Article Title: The smallest stag beetles ( Coleoptera , Lucanidae ): hidden paleodiversity in mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber from northern Myanmar

Article References: Yamamoto, S. (2023). The smallest stag beetles (Coleoptera, Lucanidae): hidden paleodiversity in mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber from northern Myanmar. Evolutionary Systematics, 7(2), 211-235. https://doi.org/10.3897/evolsyst.7.104597

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/evolsyst.7.104597

Keywords: stag beetles, Kachin amber, Cretaceous, paleontology, Lucanidae, miniaturization, Gondwana, Myanmar amber, smallest, stag, beetles, Coleoptera

Modern crickets, along with most of their orthopteran relatives, are built around a simple biomechanical principle: powerful hind legs. The hind femora are inflated with muscle to power explosive jumps, an escape strategy that has served the group for hundreds of millions of years. Mole crickets went the opposite direction, evolving shovel-like fossorial forelegs for digging while their hind legs became reduced. Wetas and their relatives in the family Gryllacrididae abandoned jumping altogether and crawl most of the time, with three pairs of legs nearly equal in size. Fortigryllus xiangrui appears to have converged on that crawling lifestyle, but in a lineage far removed from the modern raspy crickets, and at a time when dinosaurs still dominated terrestrial ecosystems.

The specimen itself is a small apterous insect, about 3.8 millimeters long from head to the deduced abdominal apex, embedded in a translucent yellow piece of amber collected from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin Province. The holotype, registered as NIGP208736, is housed at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The amber was legally collected from Tanai Township in June 2016, and the researchers spent years preparing and analyzing it, polishing the piece with progressively finer sandpaper and polishing powder to expose the fossil for study. Photographs were captured with a Zeiss Stereo Discovery V16 microscope system, combining roughly 35 to 50 individual focal planes into stacked composite images that reveal the three-dimensional structure of the specimen in remarkable detail.

Kachin amber has become one of the most important windows into Cretaceous life. Its age is constrained by biostratigraphy to the late Albian to early Cenomanian, and uranium-lead dating of zircon crystals in the associated volcanoclastic matrix puts a maximum age of 98.79 plus or minus 0.62 million years, placing it at the very beginning of the Cenomanian. The deposit has yielded an enormous diversity of arthropods, and crickets are no exception. Before the surge of amber discoveries, the Mesozoic fossil record of Gryllidea, the infraorder that includes true crickets and their closest relatives, was sparse, with most early specimens preserved as two-dimensional impression fossils that captured only limited anatomical detail. Amber inclusions changed that, preserving delicate three-dimensional structures that compression fossils simply cannot.

To date, 48 genera and 75 species of Cretaceous crickets have been recorded across eight families, including both extant lineages such as Gryllidae, Trigonidiidae, Mogoplistidae, Oecanthidae, Gryllotalpidae, and Myrmecophilidae, and extinct families like Protogryllidae and Baissogryllidae. The oldest known fossil cricket is Protogryllus grandis from the Late Triassic. But the new specimen stands apart from all of them. Its combination of features does not match any known family, leading the researchers to place it as family incertae sedis, meaning its precise familial position remains uncertain.

Several diagnostic characters do anchor Fortigryllus within Gryllidea. The presence of club-shaped setae, variable in size and irregularly distributed, on the inner basal part of the cerci is considered one of the apomorphies of the cricket clade. Similar structures occur in Stenopelmatidae, but there they are uniform in size and arranged in regular rows, a distinction that helps separate the two groups. Combined with three-segmented tarsi, these features firmly place the new fossil within the cricket infraorder. The specimen is likely an adult or at least a late-instar nymph, based on the presence of oval-shaped tympana on the forelegs, the hearing organs that crickets use to detect each other’s songs.

Ruling out candidate families required careful comparison. The fossil lacks the specialized digging forelegs of Gryllotalpidae, which bear two, three, or four claws on the fore tarsi, claws entirely absent in the new specimen. It lacks the oval body shape, extremely inflated hind femur, and pseudo-segmented erect cerci of Myrmecophilidae, the ant-loving crickets. Within Grylloidea, it cannot be assigned to Oecanthidae, which have a distinctive arrangement of apical spurs on the hind tibia and equal-sized basal tarsomeres on the fore and mid legs. Trigonidiidae are excluded because the fossil lacks subapical spurs and has only one apical spur on the metatibia. Mogoplistidae are ruled out by the absence of scales on the body and the lack of serrulations on the hind tibiae. Gryllidae typically have three apical spurs on the fore tibia, nearly hemispherical heads, and strong long hind tibial spurs, none of which match the new fossil.

The closest similarities lie with Phalangopsidae and Pteroplistidae, two families whose members often have relatively long legs and reduced apical spurs on the hind tibia. The new fossil shares two apical spurs on the fore tibia with both groups. One of the most striking characters of Phalangopsidae, as defined by Souza-Dias in 2015, is a scape as broad as the fastigium, the region between the antennal bases. In the new fossil the scape is slightly narrower than the fastigium, which is not an exact match. However, another proposed synapomorphy of Phalangopsidae, an apex of the last maxillary palpomere that is curved, is present in the fossil but absent in Pteroplistidae. Many but not all Phalangopsidae also have a broadened apical portion of that palpomere, which the fossil lacks, a condition the authors interpret as probably plesiomorphic. Taken together, the evidence suggests the new cricket could belong to the stem group of Phalangopsidae, though the authors emphasize this attribution remains tentative because the genitalia, crucial characters for convincing family-level placement in crickets, are not preserved in the specimen.

The functional morphology of the legs is where the story becomes truly intriguing. The fore femur measures 2.7 millimeters, the mid femur 2.1 millimeters, and the hind femur 3.1 millimeters on the left side, all conspicuously sturdy and covered with sparse setae. The hind femur is only slightly longer and stronger than the fore and mid femora, a proportion radically different from typical Grylloidea, where the metafemur is dramatically inflated. The authors note that this robustness is unlikely to be an artifact of preservation, because the specimen shows well-preserved articulated structures without signs of compression or deformation. Instead, the combination of relatively developed fore and midlegs with relatively undeveloped hindlegs parallels the condition seen in Gryllacrididae, leading the researchers to tentatively propose crawling as the primary mode of locomotion for this Mesozoic cricket.

This is not the first time Cretaceous insects have shown such unusual leg proportions. Spinoberotha mickaelacrai, a lacewing larva preserved in Lebanese amber, bore equally strong spines on all six legs adapted for catching prey, whereas its modern relatives use only the forelegs for that function. The Mesozoic Chresmodidae, often allied with Phasmatodea, developed extraordinary legs with up to 20 to 30 tarsomeres as an adaptation for skimming across water surfaces. These examples suggest that the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods were times of intense morphological experimentation among insects, and that only a fraction of the resulting body plans survived into the Cenozoic and persist in the modern fauna. Fortigryllus xiangrui, with its strange egalitarian legs and uncertain family ties, adds a new branch to that vanished diversity and hints at how much more remains to be discovered in the amber forests of the mid-Cretaceous.

Subject of Research: A newly described mid-Cretaceous cricket from Kachin amber with unusually robust legs on all three pairs

Article Title: A new weird cricket ( Orthoptera , Gryllidea ) from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber in northern Myanmar

Article References: Ji, X., Nel, A., Xiao, C., Gorochov, A. V., Jarzembowski, E. A., Ma, Z., & Xu, C. (2025). A new weird cricket (Orthoptera, Gryllidea) from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber in northern Myanmar. Fossil Record, 28(2), 219-230. https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.28.162805

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/fr.28.162805

Keywords: Kachin amber, Fortigryllus xiangrui, Gryllidea, Orthoptera, Cretaceous insects, paleontology, Myanmar amber, cricket evolution, fossil insects, locomotion, Phalangopsidae, mesofemur

Mites are astonishingly diverse, with more than 55,000 described living species, yet their fossil record is vanishingly thin: only about 370 fossil species have ever been reported. Their small size and delicate bodies mean they are almost never preserved in sediments, so nearly everything we know about ancient mites comes from amber, which entombs them in exquisite three-dimensional detail. Myanmar’s famous Cretaceous amber, dated to about 99 million years ago by lead-uranium zircon crystal dating, is one of the richest sources of such inclusions, yet only 13 fossil mite species have been described from it, accounting for less than 4 percent of all known fossil mites.

Chyzeriidae itself is a small and poorly studied family of trombidiform mites within the cohort Parasitengona. Today it contains three subfamilies, 12 genera and 39 species, distributed across South America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. Its most distinctive feature is a set of paired large protrusions on the back of adults, usually covered with a dense coat of setae. In the genus Chyzeria these protrusions form multiple pairs of finger-like projections, while in Parachyzeria there are only two pairs of setose whorls. Because these mites undergo heteromorphic development, their larvae and adults look so different that two separate classification systems—one for each stage—have been built, and linking them requires lengthy rearing experiments or molecular data.

The new specimen, catalogued as CNU-TRO-MA2014001, was collected from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin State and legally purchased from an authorized trader in 2014, before 2017. It is deposited at Capital Normal University in Beijing. The researchers trimmed and polished the amber piece, then examined it under Nikon stereomicroscopes and compound microscopes equipped with digital cameras, producing detailed photographs and line drawings of the mite’s anatomy.

What they found was remarkable. The active postlarval form, probably a female, measures about 2,466 micrometers in maximum length. Its idiosoma is suboval, narrowing toward the front, with two pairs of eyes near the base of the second pair of legs. At the level of the third pair of legs sit two pairs of large cylindrical protrusions, and these bear extremely long and dense setae measuring up to 1,800 micrometers—so long that they cover the entire posterior back and extend well beyond its edge, rendering that region invisible. The researchers likened the effect to the quills of a porcupine.

The mite’s other anatomy is equally telling. Its palps are slender and significantly elongated at 530 micrometers, divided into five segments with a well-developed, smooth tibial claw that curves into a knife shape at the end. The legs are long and slender, each with seven segments and strong, smooth, hook-shaped tarsal claws on legs II through IV. The genital opening is slit-like, located behind the fourth leg coxae and surrounded by paired sclerites. These features collectively place the fossil firmly within Chyzeriidae, and its similarity to Parachyzeria in the subfamily Pteridopinae—particularly the two pairs of setiferous protrusions—supports that placement, though it differs in lacking the antero-medial protrusion of Parachyzeria and in having setae that extend far past the body margin.

To test this classification, the team built a phylogenetic tree from 21 morphological characters, including the fossil species and 14 extant Chyzeriidae species, with one fossil and two extant Erythraeidae species as outgroups. The strict consensus tree, 59 steps long with a consistency index of 0.62 and a retention index of 0.72, clearly separates Chyzeriidae from Erythraeidae and recovers two monophyletic branches corresponding to the subfamilies Chyzeriinae and Pteridopinae—exactly matching the morphological classification proposed by earlier taxonomists. The new fossil species sits within Pteridopinae alongside Parachyzeria, confirming it as a distinct genus.

The ultra-long setae likely served specific biological functions. The researchers hypothesize that they functioned as a specialized defense, protecting the fragile abdomen and deterring predators in the mite’s complex Cretaceous environment. Many impurities—apparently small grains of sand or clods of earth—are trapped in the setae, suggesting the bristles may have shielded the abdomen from debris, enhancing survival in tree or soil habitats. The mite’s body color may have been red, like many other Parasitengona, and combined with the long setae, this could have made it less palatable or harder for predatory insects and spiders to grip effectively.

There may be an even more intimate function. Earlier studies suggested that the dorsal protrusions of adult Chyzeriidae could provide shelter for larvae, aiding their movement and dispersal. The researchers propose the same life strategy was probably employed 99 million years ago: the back of the mite could have hidden eggs or larvae, while the long, dense setae concealed and transported them. Such setae were likely hydrophobic, offering protection to vulnerable larvae during rainy conditions or in waterlogged habitats—a survival advantage in the humid Cretaceous forests.

Finally, the fossil’s age and the family’s modern distribution carry a biogeographic message. Because mites have limited dispersal ability, the fact that Chyzeriidae spans five continents suggests its ancestors may have existed before the breakup of Pangaea and spread across connected landmasses. The new species also implies that Pteridopinae evolved at a slow rate, its ancestral traits remaining relatively unchanged from those of living species. The exact time of origin and dispersal routes remain unsolved mysteries, but future fossil discoveries in amber may yet provide clearer answers about this ancient lineage of bristling survivors.

Subject of Research: First fossil Chyzeriidae mite described from Cretaceous amber with defensive ultra-long setae

Article Title: A Cretaceous mite with ultra-long setae possibly reveals the early survival strategy of Chyzeriidae

Article References: Liu, Y., Fan, Q.-H., & Ren, D. (2025). A Cretaceous mite with ultra-long setae possibly reveals the early survival strategy of Chyzeriidae. Fossil Record, 28(2), 241–248. https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.28.e158587

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/fr.28.e158587

Keywords: Cretachyzeria macroseta, Chyzeriidae, Myanmar amber, Cretaceous, fossil mite, Pteridopinae, setae, phylogenetics, Pangaea, Parasitengona, defense strategy, trombidiform mites

Myanmar amber, also known as burmite, comes from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin State and has been dated to the Upper Cretaceous Period, around 98 million years ago. It is by far the richest source of Cretaceous terrestrial fossils known to science, preserving an astonishing diversity of arthropods trapped in tree resin during a time when flowering plants and insects were radiating across the planet. Millipedes, among the first animals to fully conquer land, are well represented in this amber, yet the Mesozoic fossil record of the group remains remarkably sparse, with only slightly more than a dozen fossils known from the entire era before more recent Cenozoic amber deposits filled in some of the gaps.

The Siphonophorida, the order to which the new species belongs, is often called a taxonomist’s nightmare. These elongated, worm-like millipedes lack many of the well-defined characters that typically help scientists distinguish species. Around 120 of the more than 12,000 known millipede species belong to this order, representing only about 1 percent of millipede diversity. Within Siphonophorida, two families are recognized: Siphonophoridae and Siphonorhinidae. The latter is especially mysterious, comprising just six extant genera and 16 species, disjunctly distributed in Southeast Asia, South Africa, Madagascar, Chile, and California. This bizarre distribution pattern has long puzzled biogeographers, and fossils might hold the key to explaining how such an unusual arrangement came to be.

The holotype specimen, a single male, is preserved in a small round piece of amber measuring 10.02 by 12.25 by 2.42 millimeters. It was legally collected before February 2021 and donated from the vast amber collection of Patrick Müller of Käshofen, Germany, after whom the species is named. The piece is now housed in the collections of the Koenig Museum in Bonn. Alongside the millipede, the amber contains an insect leg, a mite, and vegetal fragments, painting a miniature portrait of a Cretaceous forest floor ecosystem. Authenticity was confirmed under ultraviolet light, under which Myanmar amber fluoresces blue.

What makes this description truly remarkable is the technology behind it. The researchers employed both conventional micro-computed tomography and synchrotron micro-CT at the German Electron Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg, using the PETRA III storage ring. The synchrotron scans achieved an effective pixel size of just 0.458 micrometers, using 3,501 projections with a 20-megapixel camera system. These techniques allowed the team to virtually dissect the specimen in three dimensions, revealing essential anatomical structures including the tergites, legs, head, antenna, and, most importantly, the gonopods, the specialized reproductive appendages that often carry species-specific characters in millipedes.

The new genus shares some characteristics with the extant genus Siphonorhinus, such as the pear-shaped head and elbowed antennae, but differs mainly in the shape of the antenna, tergites, and anterior gonopods. The antenna features a massively swollen, lemon-shaped sixth antennomere, reaching its greatest width about one-third of its length, with deep sensory pits on antennomeres 5 and 6. The body consists of 38 body rings plus a telson, notably fewer than the 60 or more segments found in mature specimens of the closest extant genera. The anterior gonopod consists of seven podomeres, a character shared with the American genera Illacme and Notiorhinus and the Madagascan Madagascarhinus, but differing from the six-podomere condition in Kleruchus, Nematozonium, and Siphonorhinus.

Perhaps the most consequential finding of the study is the reinterpretation of two recently described fossil species from Myanmar amber that had been assigned to Siphonorhinidae. Su, Cai, and Huang described two species in 2024, Siphonorhinus globosus and Siphonorhinus peculiaris, and used them to argue for extreme bradytely, or exceptionally slow evolution, within the family from the mid-Cretaceous to the present day. However, the new analysis shows that S. globosus is clearly a member of the family Siphonophoridae, evident from its short but pronounced beak and its straight, stout antennae with uniform antennomeres, characters typical of Siphonophoridae and absent in the elbowed, slender-antennomered Siphonorhinidae. The species has therefore been transferred to the genus Siphonophora as Siphonophora globosa comb. nov.

The generic placement of Siphonorhinus peculiaris is also questionable at best. The characters used to support its placement in Siphonorhinus are not specific to that genus, and its sensilla basiconica are arranged in rows rather than sunken into sensory pits as in true Siphonorhinus. The specimens might represent an extinct, highly derived lineage or a stem lineage within Siphonorhinidae, but they do not represent a species of the extant genus. With these corrections in place, the hypothesis of bradytely within Siphonorhinidae from the mid-Cretaceous to the present day must be rejected. The Cretaceous members of the family differ in their character combination from extant genera, showing that evolution within the group has not been frozen in time.

Members of Siphonorhinidae are not rare in Myanmar amber. At least 12 specimens were reported as of 2018, and an additional 11 have since been sent for determination, bringing the total to five males and 18 females. All five available males clearly do not belong to Protosiphonorhinus, as they have differently shaped antennae or strongly developed paranota, suggesting further diversity within the Cretaceous family awaits description. The millipede fauna of Myanmar amber is considered rich, with most species still undescribed, and the oldest known fossils of many millipede taxa, including Siphonophorida, were found in these deposits.

The description of Protosiphonorhinus patrickmuelleri marks a milestone in the study of an ancient and enigmatic lineage. By combining synchrotron imaging, micro-CT, and light microscopy, the researchers have reconstructed a creature that lived among the roots of Cretaceous forests, feeding on decaying matter as its descendants do today. The fossil record of millipedes remains full of gaps, but each new specimen from Myanmar amber adds another piece to the puzzle of how these soil-forming detritivores diversified across the planet. As more specimens emerge from the amber collections of the world, the evolutionary history of the sucking millipedes promises to become clearer, one tiny, resin-entombed arthropod at a time.

Subject of Research: Discovery of the first fossil sucking millipede from Cretaceous Myanmar amber

Article Title:  Protosiphonorhinus patrickmuelleri gen. et sp. nov., the first fossil member of the sucking millipede family Siphonorhinidae ( Colobognatha , Siphonophorida ) described from Cretaceous Myanmar amber

Article References: Moritz, L., Wipfler, B., & Wesener, T. (2025). Protosiphonorhinus patrickmuelleri gen. et sp. nov., the first fossil member of the sucking millipede family Siphonorhinidae (Colobognatha, Siphonophorida) described from Cretaceous Myanmar amber. Evolutionary Systematics, 9(1), 77-86. https://doi.org/10.3897/evolsyst.9.147291

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/evolsyst.9.147291

Keywords: paleontology, millipedes, Myanmar amber, Cretaceous, Siphonorhinidae, synchrotron imaging, evolution, fossils, Protosiphonorhinus, patrickmuelleri, first, fossil

Lepidoptera, the order of butterflies and moths, is poorly represented among fossils. Their delicate wings and slender bodies rarely survive the destructive processes of oxidation, breakage, and abrasion, and amber inclusions suffer from a strong bias toward smaller specimens. This bias means microlepidopterans are overrepresented relative to their larger relatives. The authors of the study pursued a working hypothesis: that caterpillars, with their different feeding mode, habitat, and taphonomy, might allow identification and geological dating of moth taxa that have never been found as adults in amber. That strategy had already paid off once, when the first member of the moth family Geometridae from Baltic amber was identified from a caterpillar. Focusing on larvae, the researchers reasoned, could unlock a hidden window into moth evolution.

Leaf-mining Lepidoptera are of special scientific interest because they retain a primitive feeding mode found in many basal moth families. Gracillariidae are a prominent family of ditrysian leaf-miners, exceedingly diverse with 101 genera and 1866 species, and they are basal Ditrysia that kept the larval mining lifestyle. Economically, leaf-miners can become important pests of crop plants, especially in monocultures; the chestnut pest Cameraria ohridella is a familiar example from the same subfamily. Within Gracillariidae, molecular phylogenetic analysis now recognizes eight subfamilies rather than the three traditionally accepted. Imagos of putative Gracillariidae had been described from Baltic amber as Gracillariites lithuanicus and G. mixtus, but palaeontological evidence for the caterpillars themselves came only from their mines, rarely preserved in fossil leaves, mostly from the Paleogene and Neogene.

The oldest known mines of the subfamily Lithocolletinae are actually Cretaceous: Cameraria-like mines from the Dakota Formation of central Kansas, dating to the late Albian, and Phyllonorycter-like mines from the Ora Formation of the Negev Desert, from the Turonian. Mines of the sister subfamily Phyllocnistinae had been dated to 99 plus or minus 10 million years, and this divergence was used as a calibration point in molecular studies that placed the origin of the genus Phyllonorycter in the Palaeocene, about 62.3 million years ago. Against this backdrop, the new amber caterpillars provide something the leaf mines never could: direct fossil evidence of individual larval stages of these genera, complete with identifiable anatomy.

The Baltic amber caterpillar, the holotype of Phyllonorycter inopinata, is a single finding among 1152 Lepidopteran fossils from Baltic amber in the studied collection, of which 138 are caterpillars. The specimen shows the classic traits of a leaf-mining larva: a flat, small body, a prognathous head with modified mouthparts pointing forwards, reduced legs, and prolegs strongly reduced or absent. The researchers compared it to the larvae of more than thirty moth families with leaf-mining members, and also to leaf-mining flies, beetles, and sawflies. Most candidates differ in body size, outlines, head shape, segment form, or setae. The most similar caterpillars are found within Gracillariidae, especially with respect to the presence of prolegs only on abdominal segments A3 to A5, a distinctive feature of later instars of the family. Among the twelve extant genera of Lithocolletinae, larvae of Phyllonorycter are most alike, particularly in the triangular form of the larval head.

The holotype of Phyllonorycter inopinata is 5 millimeters long and subcylindrical, with a maximum width of 0.73 millimeters on the fourth abdominal segment. Its depressed, triangular, prognathous head is 0.36 millimeters long and 0.5 millimeters broad, with developed mandibles and antennae. The legs are tiny, between 0.15 and 0.2 millimeters long, and small prolegs are present on segments A3 to A5. Three lateral setae flank each segment on either side. The species name inopinata, meaning surprising, refers to the seemingly unlikely find of a leaf-mining caterpillar preserved in amber. Because it is the only known specimen, a differential diagnosis to other Phyllonorycter species is currently impossible, and comparison to similar extant species like P. leucographella or P. platani carries the same insecurities. Future finds from Baltic amber may enable a proper diagnosis. The holotype is deposited at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Munich.

The Myanmar amber caterpillars tell an even older story. Caterpillars are rare in Myanmar amber: only six specimens appear among 287 Lepidopteran inclusions in the studied collection, three of which were studied here. The possibility that these larvae were non-lepidopteran was considered but ruled out, most obviously for the holotype of the new species with its clearly visible spinneret, the silk-spinning organ. The most similar in general resemblance are buprestid beetle larvae, which also occur in Myanmar amber, but these have a thicker head and thorax and lack setae. The holotype of Phyllocnistis cretacea is 7 millimeters long and flat, with a maximum width of 1.18 millimeters on the second thoracic segment. Its depressed, triangular, prognathous head is 0.53 millimeters long and 0.75 millimeters broad, with developed mandibles and minuscule antennae. A well-developed spinneret, 0.05 millimeters long, is present, while legs and prolegs are not developed. Each abdominal segment carries two lateral bulges, dorsal and ventral, each bearing a prominent seta bent backwards. Dorsal prothoracic plates of roughly triangular form are also present.

Two paratypes of Phyllocnistis cretacea complete the Cretaceous picture. Paratype I is 6.5 millimeters long and subcylindrical, with a partly retracted head hidden by chitinous membrane, developed mandibles and antennae, a visible leg 0.26 millimeters long, and no prolegs. Paratype II is 4 millimeters long, with the head partly retracted into the first thoracic segment, tiny mandibles and antennae, no legs or prolegs, and no visible setae; remarkably, feces produced by the caterpillar are preserved alongside it in the amber. The lack of prolegs casts some doubt on the identification, since late or last instars of Gracillariidae would be expected to show prolegs on segments A3, A4, and A5. However, the prolegs may simply be too tiny to detect given the preservation state, and reduction of leg and proleg development is common in mining Lepidoptera. The Myanmar amber is dated to the earliest Cenomanian, 99 million years ago, and the same piece preserves syninclusions of five beetle taxa, a wasp, psocids, trichomes, a wood fragment, arthropod feces, and chitin detritus.

The prognathous mouthparts of the caterpillars are the most evident character for feeding by mining, and the characteristic lateral bulges on every segment are especially well developed in many species of Phyllonorycter, though they also appear in unrelated miners like leaf-mining buprestid beetles, likely as convergent evolution maximizing body mass while keeping lateral flexibility. In Gracillariidae, the change from small, apodal, flat early instars to later instars with thoracic legs and abdominal prolegs is termed hypermetamorphosis, and there may be even more stages in some species. The fossil Phyllonorycter caterpillar may represent the third to fifth instar, and the presence of mandibles in both species argues against interpreting them as last instars. Exclusively internal feeding protects larvae from predators, weather, desiccation, and UV radiation while assuring a reliable food supply, but it constrains body size and often goes along with monophagy and host dependence. Gracillariidae are mainly hosted by Eurosids I, a broad group of angiosperm families, and numerous Phyllonorycter species use specific plant genera as hosts, from oaks and birches to roses, willows, and poplars.

The Cretaceous finding gives direct evidence for a minimal geological age of the genus Phyllocnistis, and by indirect conclusion based on their divergence, also for the genus Phyllonorycter in the sister clade Lithocolletinae. The 99-million-year-old caterpillars predate the previously accepted occurrence of the genus and place its origin closer to the radiation of their angiospermous host plants. The Eocene Baltic amber forest was tropical in climate, contrasting with the mostly temperate hosts of extant Phyllonorycter, though oaks must have been widely distributed there, as stellate oak trichomes are by far the most abundant plant remains in Baltic amber, occurring in about every second piece. Leaf miners seem to have little fossilization potential, since caterpillars would have to leave or be exposed from their mines to become embedded in resin. The well-developed spinneret and legs strengthen the hypothesis that these caterpillars left their mines for pupation outside the leaf, and the authors suggest that hypermetamorphosis in Gracillariidae might have been driven by facilitating pupation outside the mine. The findings confirm the conservative character of the leaf-mining habit for well-known extant leaf-miner taxa and open the door for future amber finds to reveal more of these unlikely survivors.

Subject of Research: Fossil leaf-mining caterpillars of Gracillariidae moths preserved in Upper Cretaceous Myanmar amber and Eocene Baltic amber

Article Title: In search for the unlikely: Leaf-mining caterpillars ( Gracillariidae , Lepidoptera ) from Upper Cretaceous and Eocene ambers

Article References: Fischer, T. C. (2021). In search for the unlikely: Leaf-mining caterpillars (Gracillariidae, Lepidoptera) from Upper Cretaceous and Eocene ambers. Zitteliana, 95, 135-145. https://doi.org/10.3897/zitteliana.95.63317

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/zitteliana.95.63317

Keywords: amber fossils, Gracillariidae, leaf miners, Myanmar amber, Baltic amber, Phyllocnistis cretacea, Phyllonorycter inopinata, Lepidoptera, Cretaceous, Eocene, hypermetamorphosis, palaeontology

The genus Tichostephanus was first established in 2019 by paleoentomologist Michael Engel on the basis of a single male specimen, Tichostephanus hui. At the time, the animal was assigned to the family Stephanidae, a group of parasitoid wasps known for the crown-like ring of tubercles on their heads. Those coronal tubercles, distinct bumps arranged around the ocelli on the top of the head, are exactly what misled the original classification, because they are a hallmark of stephanid wasps. But everything else about the insect told a different story, and subsequent work has steadily pulled the genus toward a new home.

That home turned out to be Gasteruptiidae, a family of 511 described living species placed in the superfamily Evanioidea. Modern gasteruptiids are instantly recognizable to entomologists: they have an elongated propleuron, hind tibiae that appear conspicuously dilated, and a slender, highly mobile metasoma attached high on the body. Adults sip nectar as free-living fliers, but their larvae lead a more sinister life as kleptoparasites inside the nests of solitary bees, where they consume both the host offspring and the pollen provisions stockpiled for it. Phylogenetic analyses published by Wang and colleagues in 2024, and reinforced by Ge and colleagues in 2025, demonstrated that Tichostephanus fits best within this family based on its wing venation, slender hind femur, apically flattened hind tibia and metasomal structure, formally relocating the genus from Stephanidae to Gasteruptiidae.

The most striking discovery came when female specimens of the genus finally surfaced. Their ovipositor sheaths bear a unique structure the researchers describe as a bottle brush: a dense apical array of plate-shaped sensilla unlike anything seen in related wasps. This specialized sensory equipment suggests that these Cretaceous wasps possessed refined host-detection capabilities, likely tuned to locating wood-boring insects in which to lay their eggs. The finding hints that the ecological repertoire of early gasteruptiids was broader and stranger than the bee-nest kleptoparasitism of their modern relatives, and that the family once harbored significant morphological and possibly ecological diversity that has since been lost.

The two new species were not found on fresh expeditions but recognized among specimens already in hand. Both holotypes come from the Si-Xun Ge Collection, housed at the College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, and both pieces of amber were acquired before 2017. In fact, the two insects had already participated in science: they were previously included in the 2025 phylogenetic analysis under the temporary designations Tichostephanus sp1 and sp2, meaning their evolutionary positions were established before they received formal names. Specimens were examined and photographed with a Canon G9 camera mounted on an Olympus CX31 microscope, with morphological terminology following established frameworks for fossil hymenopterans.

Tichostephanus qinshubao, whose sex remains unknown because the antennae and genitalia are not preserved, is a small wasp with a partially preserved body length of 6.2 millimeters and a fore wing of roughly 2.4 millimeters. Its globular head carries two unpaired anterior teeth on the frons followed by three pairs of coronal teeth around the ocelli, and its compound eyes occupy about two-thirds of the lateral head surface. What sets it apart from its relatives is a precise combination of characters: a neck bearing two distinct carinae and sitting at a lower level than the middle of the pronotum, a pterostigma that is elongate and narrow at about twelve times as long as its maximum width, a vein 1Cu that curves slightly toward the posterior margin at its distal end, and a first subdiscal cell that is approximately rectangular. The species is named after Qin Shubao, a famous minister of the Tang Dynasty who is honored as one of the door gods of Chinese culture.

Tichostephanus yuchijingde, known from a male holotype measuring 6.4 millimeters excluding the antenna, with a fore wing of 2.1 millimeters, is distinguished by a complementary set of traits. Its pterostigma, while still elongated, is comparatively broad at less than ten times its maximum width; its vein 1Cu is straight rather than curved; its first subdiscal cell is parallelogram-shaped rather than rectangular; and its vein 2Cu-a runs obliquely to vein A. The male antenna is short and robust with twelve flagellomeres, the head bears two unpaired triangular tubercles anteriorly plus three pairs of coronal teeth, and the hind tibia is about 1.5 times longer than the hind femur with a distinctly flattened apex. Its genitalia are only partly exserted, with long, broad parameres ending in rounded apices. The species honors Yu Chijingde, another Tang Dynasty minister who serves as the second door god alongside Qin Shubao, a fittingly paired set of names for two species described side by side.

These fine-grained differences in wing architecture may sound arcane, but they are the bread and butter of fossil insect taxonomy. The fore wing of Tichostephanus is strongly reduced, with a very large submarginal cell formed by the fusion of veins 2Rs+M and 1m-cu into a single continuous vein, and with vein M falling short of the wing margin. The hind wing is even more stripped down, retaining only the Sc+R vein. Because venation patterns are rigidly heritable and easily compared across specimens, ratios such as the length-to-width proportion of the pterostigma and the degree of curvature of vein 1Cu serve as reliable species-level fingerprints even when soft tissues have vanished. To help future researchers navigate the expanded genus, the authors provide an updated identification key covering all five known species, separating them by coronal tubercles, petiole segmentation, pronotal striae and venational proportions.

The phylogenetic picture that emerges is provocative. The 2025 analysis supports the monophyly of Tichostephanus as currently sampled, with Tichostephanus longus occupying a sister position to all the other species. Yet longus is the odd one out in nearly every visible way: it lacks the prominent coronal teeth of its congeners, and its petiole consists of two segments rather than one. It does, however, share the key synapomorphies that define the genus, namely the reduced fore wing venation and the specialized brush-like sensilla on the ovipositor sheath. The authors argue that this combination suggests Tichostephanus, as presently defined, may not be a natural group, and that longus could ultimately represent a distinct genus in its own right, pending future fossil discoveries that might clarify the branching pattern within this early-diverging gasteruptiid clade.

Every new species from Burmese amber carries a weight beyond taxonomy, because the Hukawng Valley deposits are a finite and increasingly contested scientific resource. The authors note that all new fossil specimens are available for re-examination by any researcher on request, and that no large language models were used in preparing the work. For now, the two door-god wasps stand as the latest ambassadors of a Cretaceous world in which gasteruptiid wasps experimented with body plans and sensory tools that no living species possesses, their bottle-brush ovipositors and crown-toothed heads frozen mid-evolution in amber for paleontologists to decode nearly a hundred million years later.

Subject of Research: Two new mid-Cretaceous parasitoid wasp species of the genus Tichostephanus described from Burmese amber

Article Title: Description of two new species of the mid-Cretaceous genus † Tichostephanus Engel ( Hymenoptera , Gasteruptiidae )

Article References: Ge, S.-X., Ren, L.-L., & Tan, J.-L. (2026). Description of two new species of the mid-Cretaceous genus † Tichostephanus Engel (Hymenoptera, Gasteruptiidae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research, 99, 47-57. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.99.175957

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/jhr.99.175957

Keywords: Tichostephanus, Gasteruptiidae, Burmese amber, Cretaceous, paleontology, Hymenoptera, parasitoid wasps, fossil insects, taxonomy, Evanioidea, Myanmar amber, ovipositor

The defining feature of Noo-Noo is its mouthparts. These structures were exceptionally long and flexible, reaching nearly twice the length of the insect’s body. Among modern planthoppers, the closest living relatives of the newly described species, mouthparts are built like a simple needle: rigid, straight, and suited to piercing plant tissue to draw out fluids. Noo-Noo and its ancient kin, by contrast, carried feeding organs that could bend and extend, allowing them to reach food sources inaccessible to insects with more conventional equipment — deep inside cracks and crevices in tree bark, where sugar-rich fluids could be tapped.

The study was led by Dolev Fabrikant and Dr. Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou of Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology, part of the Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and the New Environmental School. The team examined fossil insects belonging to Neazoniidae, an ancient family of planthoppers, including 13 specimens preserved in Kachin amber from Myanmar. Kachin amber is one of the most important windows into Cretaceous terrestrial life, preserving organisms in extraordinary three-dimensional detail, and the Neazoniidae specimens it contains turned out to hold a surprise that only modern imaging technology could fully unpack.

Under close examination, the elongated mouthparts of the ancient insects revealed a surface densely covered with transverse folds. To determine whether these folds were merely decorative or structurally meaningful, the researchers turned to high-resolution micro-computed tomography, a technique that uses X-rays to reconstruct internal anatomy without damaging the fossil. The scans showed that the folds were integral to the structure itself rather than external ornamentation. Their likely function was to give the mouthparts flexibility while preventing them from kinking or collapsing under stress — much like a bendy drinking straw or a corrugated flexible hose, which can curve freely without pinching shut.

The fossils themselves provided further confirmation of this flexibility. In several specimens, the mouthparts were preserved in a bent position. Because amber freezes insects in place at the moment they are engulfed by resin, these bent postures represent snapshots of the animals as they were in life. The researchers therefore interpret the curled mouthparts as direct evidence that the structures were genuinely flexible while the insects were alive, not artifacts of preservation. Among the living relatives of Neazoniidae, no comparable structure is known, marking this as an ancient evolutionary solution that has since disappeared entirely.

The new species’ unusual appearance inspired its name. The epithet “Noo-Noo” was chosen after the friendly vacuum cleaner from the children’s television series Teletubbies, whose long, flexible hose bears an uncanny resemblance to the ancient insect’s feeding organ. The whimsical moniker belies the scientific weight of the find, but it also captures the essence of the discovery: an animal whose most distinctive feature looks like something engineered rather than evolved, a corrugated tube coiled within a creature smaller than a fingernail.

Why would an insect need such an elaborate feeding apparatus? Butterflies might seem an obvious comparison, since they use a flexible proboscis to drink nectar from flowers. The researchers, however, believe the resemblance is only superficial. The mouthparts of Noo-Noo pointed backward and functioned as a piercing-and-sucking system, a design that, like those of its modern relatives, is poorly suited to nectar feeding. Moreover, despite examining numerous fossils, the team found no convincing evidence of pollen accumulating on the insects’ bodies — the kind of sign that would indicate a role as pollinators. The butterfly analogy, in other words, fails on both anatomical and ecological grounds.

The explanation the researchers propose is more specialized: these insects were sap-suckers with a taste for what lies beneath the bark. Their long, flexible mouthparts could have snaked through narrow cracks in tree bark and guided the piercing organs toward deep vascular tissues, where nutrient-rich fluids flow. At the tip of the mouthpart sat another unusual feature — a structure with two grooved lobes that likely opened during feeding, helping to anchor the mouthpart against the walls of the crack. The researchers liken this mechanism to a wall plug expanding inside a drilled hole, holding the apparatus firmly in place while the insect fed.

The discovery may carry broader implications for understanding Cretaceous forest ecosystems. Long or corrugated feeding structures appeared in several unrelated insect groups during this period, raising the possibility that forests rich in thick-barked trees offered a competitive advantage to insects capable of reaching deeper tissues. The study notes that resin-producing forests of the Cretaceous were also associated with evidence of recurrent fires, and trees in fire-prone environments often develop thicker bark as protection. The researchers cautiously suggest that such conditions may have created ecological opportunities for unique feeding strategies — strategies that are almost entirely absent among planthoppers today, whose needle-like mouthparts reflect a very different set of environmental pressures.

Dr. Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou stated: “The discovery of ‘Noo-Noo,’ a new species that lived approximately 99 million years ago, gives us an extraordinary glimpse into the insect world of the age of the dinosaurs. This is not merely an insect previously unknown to science, but an animal that developed an evolutionary solution with almost no modern equivalent: a long, flexible, and durable feeding organ that likely enabled it to reach food deep within tree bark. The fact that similar structures appeared in several insect groups during the Cretaceous period suggests that ancient forests created ecological conditions and opportunities very different from those we know today. The discovery of a new species like this is therefore not simply the addition of another name to the tree of life, but another piece of the puzzle that enables us to reconstruct what ecosystems looked like and how they functioned tens of millions of years ago.”

For paleontologists, the find underscores the value of amber as a time capsule. Soft structures such as flexible mouthparts rarely survive in conventional compression fossils, where delicate anatomy is crushed or dissolved over geological time. Amber, by contrast, entombs specimens in three dimensions, preserving fine surface detail and even internal architecture that can be visualized with micro-CT scanning. Without such preservation, a feeding apparatus as unusual as Noo-Noo’s might never have been recognized, and the evolutionary experiment it represents would have vanished from the record altogether.

The description of Cretodorus noonoo adds a new branch to the tree of life and, just as importantly, a new data point in the history of ecological specialization. It shows that during the age of the dinosaurs, insects were experimenting with feeding strategies that have since been abandoned, shaped by forests whose structure and fire regimes differed markedly from those of the modern world. Each such discovery refines the picture of how Cretaceous ecosystems functioned — and reminds us that evolution’s portfolio has always included designs that today seem almost alien.

Subject of Research: A new Cretaceous planthopper species with flexible, corrugated mouthparts preserved in Kachin amber

Article Title: Rare discovery reveals a new species from the dinosaur age

Article References: Rare discovery reveals a new species from the dinosaur age. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: Cretodorus noonoo, amber fossil, planthoppers, Neazoniidae, Kachin amber, Cretaceous period, micro-computed tomography, insect mouthparts, Tel Aviv University, paleontology, tree bark feeding, Myanmar amber