Palaeoentomology

**Reinterpretation of “Oxyporus” impressus Piton, 1940 from the Paleocene of Menat, France with the description of Menatomium gen. nov. (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Oxytelinae)**

JOSH JENKINS SHAW — 2026-04-29

Rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) are known since at least the Jurassic period (Chatzimanolis, 2018). However, among the approximately 67,000 described extant species of rove beetles only about 460 fossil species have been named and described (Newton, 2022), and even lesser number of extinct species are correctly identified according to the standards of modern taxonomy. For example, it turned out that Oxyporus impressus Piton, 1940 from the middle Paleocene of Menat, France clearly does not belong to Oxyporinae as originally proposed.

Malthinus (s. str.) manukyani sp. nov., first record of the genus from Rovno amber (Coleoptera: Cantharidae)

SERGEY V. KAZANTSEV — 2026-04-29

The soldier beetle genus Malthinus Latreille, 1805, belonging to the tribe Malthinini (Malthininae), is widely distributed in the Holarctic, also penetrating into the Neotropics and the Oriental Region. Being one of the most species-rich in the family, it comprises over 350 species, the greater part of which, about 300 species, occur in the Palaearctic (Delkeskamp, 1977; Kazantsev & Brancucci, 2007).

**Two new species of Alavesia in amber from Hkamti and Tanai, Myanmar (Diptera: Atelestidae)**

MICHAEL S. ENGEL — 2026-04-29

Lazarus taxa are those clades for which fossil species were the only taxa known until surviving members were discovered much later, usually in relict habitats. The most famous of Lazarus taxa are the fishes of the Actinistia, commonly known as coelacanths (a name referring to the first described species, the Permian Coelacanthus granulatus Agassiz, 1839). At first known from a diversity of fossil species spanning the Devonian to Cretaceous, the lineage was believed extinct until the first living species, Latimeria chalumnae Smith, 1939, was trawled and discovered in 1938 off the coast of South Africa (Smith, 1939). A second living species was discovered around Sulawesi in 1997 (Pouyaud et al., 1999).

**First record of the genus Minyohelea (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) from the Lower Cretaceous amber of Spain with description of a new species**

RYSZARD SZADZIEWSKI — 2026-04-29

Fossil Ceratopogonidae are common in Spanish amber. To date eight species have been described (Peñalver et al., 2025); two of them have been described from San Just amber: Atriculicoides hispanicus (Szadziewski & Arillo, 2016) and Atriculicoides sanjusti (Szadziewski & Arillo, 2016), both in the same piece as the new species. Gerontodacus skalskii (Szadziewski & Arillo, 1998), originally described from Álava amber is also recorded in San Just amber (Arillo et al., 2008).

Cretolala kachinensis gen. et sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Delphacoidea), the first lalacid from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber: morphological and taphonomic implications

YA-NI TANG — 2026-04-29

We report Cretolala kachinensis gen. et sp. nov., the first formally described representative of the family Lalacidae from mid-Cretaceous (~99 Ma) Kachin amber. The morphology and taphonomy of the specimen were studied using optical microscopy, micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM‒EDS). Cretolala kachinensis gen. et sp. nov. exhibits a unique combination of forewing characters, including a strengthened, broad, and wrinkled costal margin; ScP+R fork proximal to both the Pcu+A₁ fusion and the CuA fork; MP with five terminals; and CuA₁ and CuA₂ each with two terminals. Crossvein patterns differ between the left and right forewings, indicating that crossvein expression alone is not diagnostic. The forewing bears distinct maculation, with a face-like pattern dorsally and an extensive lateral pattern that may indicate aposematism, mimicry, or plant-like camouflage in an arboreal herbivore. Taphonomic analyses based on optical micrographs and material-dependent X-ray attenuation in micro-CT show that minerals are distributed throughout the fossil, coating anatomical surfaces and infilling pre-existing cavities and voids. These phases help stabilize morphology and influence the micro-CT reconstruction of soft-bodied structures. SEM–EDS analyses indicate that the body-coating and void-filling minerals are dominated by quartz and pyrite, with feldspars and aluminosilicate mixtures also present, locally enriched in K, Na, Mg, or Ca. This assemblage and its textures point to a polyphase paragenetic sequence, with early detrital infill and later authigenic mineralization. Our results suggest that minerals and some chemicals derived from the host sediments can be transported into and, in some cases, precipitated within amber inclusions, infilling voids and providing structural support that influences fossil preservation. Collectively, these phases occlude porosity, stabilize morphology, and enhance X-ray contrast, although they locally obscured primary tissue boundaries. Our results highlight multistage diagenesis in Kachin amber and underscore variability among inclusions in both mineral assemblages and the timing of mineralization/diagenetic events.

A new remarkable froghopper from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber (Hemiptera, Cicadomorpha, Sinoalidae)

JUN CHEN — 2026-04-29

Sinoalidae is an extinct froghopper family with high palaeo-biodiversity documented in the Mesozoic. Up to now, two subfamilies along with four tribes (Fangyuaniini and Sinoalini in Sinoalinae, Wangalini and Juroalini in Juroalinae, respectively) have been attributed into this family. A new genus and species, Shuixiuia yuchenae gen. et sp. nov., is herein described from the mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber. This new taxon bears some typic traits of Fangyuaniini (Sinoalinae), but also displays remarkably unique morphological characteristics not recorded in other sinoalids, such as the habitus with the body very elevated near wing apex and much higher than other parts, tegmina gradually widened from the wing base to sub-apex, clavus and postcostal cell very narrow, and the stigmal cell and cell C5 broad and somewhat quadrangular. Our new find further reveals the diversity of the Sinoalidae in the Kachin amber biota and also suggests the high level of morphological disparity of extinct froghoppers in the mid-Cretaceous.

Two new mid-Cretaceous genera of Yetkhatidae (Hemiptera, Fulgoromorpha) from Kachin amber reveal an expanded morphological disparity within the family

JIA-YAN SUN — 2026-04-29

Two new genera, Tardivena Wang & Bourgoin gen. nov. and Platyclamys Wang & Bourgoin gen. nov., of the fossil planthopper family Yetkhatidae are described from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber, based respectively on the type species Tardivena multiradiata Wang & Bourgoin sp. nov. and Platyclamys angulata Wang & Bourgoin sp. nov. A revised key to the genera of Yetkhatidae is provided. The new taxa expand the known morphological disparity of the family and refine several diagnostic characters, particularly in head structure, thoracic carinae, and forewing venation. These findings improve the delineation of Yetkhatidae and contribute new information to the understanding of morphological evolution within early Fulgoroidea.

A comparison of insect disarticulation during simulated transport and implications for fossil preservation and identification

JOHNATHAN A. SORRENTINO — 2026-04-29

The fossil record represents a small fraction of what lived in ancient ecosystems. Transport, the carrying of organisms from their living environment to their burial environment, remains an enigmatic part of the fossilization process. We analyzed the effects of transport on the preservation potential of a wide variety of insects with different morphologies: Camponotus spp. (carpenter ants), Bombus spp. (bumblebees), Polyommatus spp. (butterflies), Teleogryllus oceanicus (oceanic house crickets), Enallagma spp. (blue damselflies) and Coccinellidae (ladybird beetles). Live specimens were placed in rotary tumblers with water and silt-sized silica sediment for 48 hours. Specimen vitality, buoyancy, and articulation were recorded every two hours to determine the relative preservation potential of these insects. We find that ants, bumblebees, crickets, and ladybird beetles are less likely to disarticulate to unidentifiable degrees—even under long transport times. In contrast, butterflies and damselflies disarticulate relatively rapidly. These results suggest that the more robust group of insects could be overrepresented in environments that would contain many transported specimens, such as fluvial, deltaic, and coastal marine.

Earliest occurrence of the family Megaspilidae (Hymenoptera: Ceraphronoidea): A new genus in Early Cretaceous amber from Lebanon

SERGIO ÁLVAREZ-PARRA — 2026-04-29

The oldest representative of the ceraphronoid family Megaspilidae is described and illustrated based on a well-preserved female from Early Cretaceous Lebanese amber. Alphaspilus heliades gen. et sp. nov. shows the characteristic anatomical features of the family and, despite superficial similarity, clearly differs from the genera Megaspilus Westwood and Conostigmus Dahlbom. This discovery proves that both stem and crown ceraphronoid groups coexisted in Early Cretaceous forest ecosystems. An updated checklist of all known fossil Megaspilidae species is provided.

First record of a four-tepaled flower of Tropidogyne from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber

XIANG-BO SONG — 2026-04-29

The establishment of a fixed pentamerous floral ground plan was a key innovation in the radiation of core eudicots (Pentapetalae). However, the developmental stability of this trait during the Cretaceous Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution (ATR) remains poorly understood. Tropidogyne, a dominant flower genus in the mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber, has been previously characterized by a predominantly pentamerous organization and a striking morphological resemblance to the extant family Cunoniaceae (e.g., Ceratopetalum). Here, we report a unique four-tepaled flower assigned to Tropidogyne cf. pentaptera. The reduction from five to four tepals is accompanied by a coordinated decrease in ovary ridges (from ten to eight), suggesting a developmental variation. While this meristic instability is comparable to variation observed in extant Ceratopetalum, the absence of diagnostic cunoniaceous synapomorphies suggests that Tropidogyne likely belongs to an unresolved lineage within rosids. This finding indicates that variability in floral organ number was already present in mid-Cretaceous eudicots. This pattern may reflect developmental plasticity in early eudicot ontogeny and provides new insights into the stabilization of the pentamerous floral ground plan in extant lineages.

Late Cretaceous amber from Jiayin (Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China) and wildfire events

LING-HAN LUO — 2026-04-29

Cretaceous amber plays a key role in understanding the evolution of Late Mesozoic biotas and the changes in palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment. This study reports Late Cretaceous amber from the Taipinglinchang Formation in Jiayin County, Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China, and presents its Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic characteristics. These ambers are small in size, relatively concentrated on the bedding horizons, and associated with abundant charcoals, reflecting that wildfire events were responsible for the formation of the amber beds. Research on this amber occurrence provides important empirical materials for investigating the resin secretion characteristics of resin-producing plants and the palaeoenvironmental conditions of the Jiayin area during the Late Cretaceous.