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Issue: Vol. 7 No. 3: June 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-06-29
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.7.3.9
Page range: 395-406
Abstract views: 58
PDF downloaded: 67

Cretacetrocta, a new genus of barklice from the Early Cretaceous Lebanese amber

Key State Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Petroleum Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Mazraat Yachouh, El-Maten, Lebanon
Key State Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Petroleum Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; Lebanese University, Faculty of Science II, Natural Sciences Department, Fanar – El-Matn, PO box 26110217, Lebanon
Psocodea Troctomorpha Mesozoic amber taxonomy

Abstract

Pachytroctidae is a diverse extant family of Troctomorpha, represented by few fossil taxa from the Cretaceous ambers of Myanmar and Lebanon, and a single species from the Eocene amber of France (Oise). Herein, we describe and illustrate a new monospecific genus Cretacetrocta libanella Hakim & Azar gen. et sp. nov. from the Lower Cretaceous Bqaatouta amber outcrop (Lebanon). The new taxon is tentatively assigned to Pachytroctidae, and the only hitherto record from Lebanese amber of the subfamily Tapinellinae. The new finding reveals potential unreliability of the character ‘nodulus’ as a key diagnostic characteristic of the family, at the very least among fossil representatives. On the other hand, sexual dimorphism, a common trait in modern species of the Pachytroctidae, remains unveiled among extinct taxa.

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