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Soldier beetles have a relatively good fossil record, especially from Baltic amber and Kachin amber, Myanmar, summing up to about 200 formally described species of Cantharidae. Compared to 5500 extant species, this seems still not ample. Yet, the record is in fact largely restricted to adults. We report here a fossil soldier beetle larva from Kachin amber, identified as such based on densely spaced small setae on its body surf...
Quantitative morphological comparison of rake-legged mites over the last 100 million years and the first fossil larva of CaeculidaeNARA Subscribed
Rake-legged mites (Caeculidae) are ambush predators. The fossil record of the group Caeculidae is scarce, but includes a few well-preserved specimens in Miocene, Eocene and Cretaceous ambers. We report newly discovered specimens from approximately 100-million-year-old Kachin amber in Myanmar. The specimens possess the typical raptorial forelegs bearing spine-like setae with extended sockets. One of the new specimens, and possi...
A tiny fossil representative of Insecta from the Permian with an unusually regularly segmented trunkNARA Subscribed
The myriad representatives of the group Insecta dominate modern day terrestrial ecosystems. The fossil record of Insecta dates back to the Devonian, with large diversification events and correspondingly diverse fossil record in the Carboniferous and Permian. The reconstructed ground pattern condition of Insecta includes a posterior trunk, abdomen, with eleven segments. Yet, no modern nor fossil form is so far known to possess...
New indications for the life habits of long-legged aphidlion-like larvae in about 100-million-year-old amberNARA Subscribed
Larvae of lacewings (Neuroptera) are known to be fierce predators today. Most characteristic are their prominent piercing-sucking stylets, which are used for venom injection and sucking out the fluids of the prey. Among lacewing larvae, aphidlions (larvae of the groups Chrysopidae and Hemerobiidae, green and brown lacewings) are today highly specialised to feed on aphids and evolved strategies to not be detected and attacked b...
Beetle larvae show high diversity in forms and ecological roles. Beetle larvae are often roughly categorised into certain larval types, for example: campodeiform, onisciform, scarabeiform, or elateriform. Larvae of the latter type are virtually absent from the fossil record. Here, we report three amber pieces from Cretaceous Kachin amber, Myanmar (about 100 million years old) that together include nine elateriform beetle larva...
Centipedes are predatory representatives of the group Myriapoda and important components of the soil and leaf-litter fauna. The first pair of trunk appendages is modified into venom-injecting maxillipeds in all centipedes. The number of trunk appendage pairs varies between the different groups of centipedes, from 15 pairs as apparently ancestral (plesiomorphic) condition, up to 191 pairs. The last pair of trunk legs can be use...
Unusual larviform beetles in 100-million-year-old Kachin amber resemble immatures of trilobite beetles and firefliesNARA Subscribed
Despite the large number of species in the group Coleoptera (beetles), it is usually relatively easy to identify an adult beetle as such due to certain common characteristics. Among beetle larvae, however, there is a larger variability of body organisation. In some lineages, specialised larval morphologies are carried on into the adult phase by heterochrony, more exactly paedomorphosis. Such evolutionary events resulted in lar...
35 million-year-old solid-wood-borer beetle larvae support the idea of stressed Eocene amber forestsNARA Subscribed
Eocene amber is an important window into the past about 35 million years ago. The large quantities of resin produced by this forest of the past, resulting in amber, triggered the idea of a forest under stress. Recent findings of higher abundances of hoverfly larvae in Eocene amber, in the modern fauna often associated with wood-borer larvae, provided a hint that wood-borer larvae may have contributed to this stress. Yet, so fa...
The first fossil false click beetle larva preserved in amberNARA Subscribed
We report a new and unusual beetle larva preserved in ca. 100 million-year-old Kachin amber. Larvae of many modern lineages of beetles are associated with wood, breaking it into smaller pieces or directly digesting it. With such a lifestyle, beetle larvae are important for carbon cycling. We can assume that this is not only the case in modern ecosystems, but was similar in the past. Yet, wood-associated beetle larvae seem so f...
A fossil aphidlion preserved together with its prey in 40 million-year-old Baltic amberNARA Subscribed
Lacewings (Neuroptera) have predatory larvae with highly specialised mouthparts. Larvae of many groups within Neuroptera are well represented as fossils preserved in ambers; however, larvae of some groups are less often reported in the literature. Here we report such a rare case, a larva of the group Hemerobiidae, an aphidlion, preserved in a piece of Eocene Baltic amber (about 40 million years old). It is preserved together w...
Raphidioptera, the group of snakeflies, is a rather species-poor in-group of Holometabola. Yet, fossils of snakeflies indicate that the group was more diverse in the past. Here we compare the morphological diversity of snakefly larvae over time. Snakefly larvae are well represented in Cretaceous and Eocene ambers facilitating such a comparison. We used measurements of discrete dimensions as a basis for comparison. This reveals...
Beetle larvae often differ significantly in morphology from their adult counterparts. Therefore, it should be surprising that these immatures are often not considered to the same extent as the adult beetles. As an example, the fossil record of most beetle groups is largely represented by adult specimens. Representatives of Mordellidae, the group of tumbling flower beetles, have a cosmopolitan distribution with myriads of forma...
Debris-carrying behaviour of bark lice immatures preserved in 100 million years old amberNARA Subscribed
Camouflage strategies, including several types of concealments, are known for several insect groups today, such as immatures of some species within reduviid bugs (Hemiptera), lace wings (Neuroptera), caddisflies (Trichoptera) and bark lice (Psocodea). However, camouflage has only rarely been reported in the fossil record. Here we report findings of four bark lice preserved in 100 Million year old amber from Myanmar, which repr...