Two new fossil representatives of plant bugs of the family Miridae that belong to the subfamily Psallopinae: Psallops eocenicus sP. nov. and Psallops bitterfeldi sP. nov. from Baltic amber (Upper Eocene) are described as new specimens. These representatives of Psallopinae are one of the oldest fossil bugs of the recent genus Psallops to be known to date.
Keywords
Heteroptera, Miridae, Psallopoinae, Psallops, new species, Eocene Baltic amber.
Introduction
The extinct Psallopinae are important for classifying and understanding the relationships among the closely related mirid groups Isometopinae, Psallopinae (sensu Schuh, 1976) and Cylapinae. These subfamilies are considered to be most the primitive sister groups among other mirids and their taxonomical composition, geographical …show more content…
Recent Psallopinae appear to live on tree trunks and bark. For instance, the only Psallops myiocephalus Yas. from Japan is known from an oak Quercus acutissima (Yasunaga, 1999). As is shown from the material that was investigated, the extinct genus Psallops is represented by only two fossil species (P. eocenicus sP. n. and P. bitterfeldi sP. n.) in Eocene Baltic amber and one more species (P. popovi Hercz.) is so far only known from Miocene Dominican amber (Herczek, 2011). At the same time, Schuh (1976) correctly pointed out that the position of the genus Psallops had always been problematical and all of its characters showed a greater variation than had previously been known
Keywords
Heteroptera, Miridae, Psallopoinae, Psallops, new species, Eocene Baltic amber.
Introduction
The extinct Psallopinae are important for classifying and understanding the relationships among the closely related mirid groups Isometopinae, Psallopinae (sensu Schuh, 1976) and Cylapinae. These subfamilies are considered to be most the primitive sister groups among other mirids and their taxonomical composition, geographical …show more content…
Recent Psallopinae appear to live on tree trunks and bark. For instance, the only Psallops myiocephalus Yas. from Japan is known from an oak Quercus acutissima (Yasunaga, 1999). As is shown from the material that was investigated, the extinct genus Psallops is represented by only two fossil species (P. eocenicus sP. n. and P. bitterfeldi sP. n.) in Eocene Baltic amber and one more species (P. popovi Hercz.) is so far only known from Miocene Dominican amber (Herczek, 2011). At the same time, Schuh (1976) correctly pointed out that the position of the genus Psallops had always been problematical and all of its characters showed a greater variation than had previously been known