Oligoptilomera luberonensis: A new species of Pond Skater from the Oligocene Murs Palaeolake of southern France.

Pond Skaters, Gerridae, are Hemipterans (True Bugs) able to skate upon the surface of water using a combination of surface tension and hydrophobic hairs on their legs. This has enabled them to colonise ponds, rivers, lakes and marine environments. Surprisingly, despite being nearly ubiquitous in environments with excellent potential for fossil preservation, and having a history which stretches back to the Mesozoic, fossil Pond Skaters are surprisingly rare.

In a paper published in the European Journal of Taxonomy on 15 August 2023, André Nel of the Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité at Sorbonne Université, Bastien Mennecart of the Natural History Museum Basel, Tamara Spasojevic and Alexandra Viertler, also of the Natural History Museum Basel, and of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Bern, Olivier Maridet of the Jurassica Museum, and the Department of Geosciences at the University of Fribourg, Loïc Costeur, again of the Natural History Museum Basel, Romain Garrouste, also of the Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité at Sorbonne Université, and Pauline Coster of the Réserve Naturelle Nationale Géologique du Luberon, describe a new species of Pond Skater from the Oligocene Murs Palaeolake, which is part of the Luberon system of Palaeolakes in southern France.

The Murs Palaeolake formed in the Murs Graben, or Basin of Sénanque-Murs, between Apt and Carpentras in the Vaucluse Department of France. The lake deposits are of Eocene-Oligocene age, and overlie Cretaceous marine sediments. Les Vergiers is a locality within the Réserve Naturelle Nationale Géologique du Luberon with an exposed 20-30 cm sequence of Rupelian (Early Oligocene) Sables  et  grès  verts  de  la  Valette-de-Pernes (a sequence of grey marls with limestone inclusions which is up to four metres thick in other areas and has produced numerous terrestrial Vertebrate fossils) is overlain by a three metre thick section of the Laminites à Poissons de Murs, a sequence of laminated limestones and marls, considered to be of Middle Oligocene age, which is in turn overlaid by the massive green sandstone of the Marnes et grès verts de Murs.

Location map and geological context of the ‘Les Vergiers’ fossiliferous locality in Murs (Vaucluse, France). (A) Geographical position of Murs in France and within the National Natural Reserve of Luberon. (B) Stratigraphic log of the ‘Les Vergiers’ from the ‘Sables et grès verts de la Valette-de-Pernes’ to the ‘Marnes et grès verts de Murs’. Nel et al. (2023).

The Laminites à Poissons de Murs seqience at Les Vergiers is highly fossiliferous, and was heavily exploited by amateur and commercial fossil collectors until the creation of the Réserve Naturelle Nationale Géologique du Luberon in 1987, with excavations since that time needing prior authorization from the reserve authorities. The most abundant fossils from the Laminites à Poissons de Murs are Fish, predominantly Dapalis macrurus, as well as some Plant fossils. Recent excavations at Les Vergiers, carried out in 2021-2022 have yeilded a number of small Fish assigned to Prolebias sp., some Plant remains, some Gastropods, some possible freshwater Jellyfish, and some Insects.

One of these Inesects is a Pond Skater, which Nel et al. name Oligoptilomera luberonensis, where 'Oligoptilomera' is a combination of 'Oligocene' and the modern Pond Skater genus name 'Ptilomera', and 'luberonensis' means 'from Luberon'. The new species is described from a single specimen, a wingless brown Pond Skater 9.3 mm long and 3.7 mm wide. This has white bands running along the lateral margins of its mesothorax, and three white spots on its head. 

Oligoptilomera luberonensis, holotype (PNRL 2715), part, photographed under normal light. Scale bar is 5 mm. Nel et al. (2023).

Oligoptilomera luberonensis appears to be a member of the Ptilomerinae, a group of Pond Skaters today restricted to Madagascar, China, Southeast Asia, and Papua New Guinea. While this seems surprising, an affinity between the Eocene and Oligocene faunas of Western Europe and that of modern East and Southeast Asia has been seen in multiple groups previously, and the presence of the group on Madagascar suggests that the Ptilomerinae were once much more widespread.

The Middle Oligocene Insect fauna at Les Vergiers appears to be similar to the Rupelian Insect fauna at the nearby laminated lacustrine limestones of Céreste. Fossil Insects are far more abundant at Céreste, but the Les Vergiers contains groups not known at Céreste, such as Pond Skaters and very large Weevils (Weevils are very common at Céreste, but are always small). The fauna and geology of the two site suggests that the palaeolake was probably much more shallow at Les Vergiers than at Céreste, probably close to a river system bringing in plant remains, while Céreste appears to represent a more open-water environment, possibly at the centre of a deep lake.

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Acanthaspis rafiqi: A new species of Assassin Bug from Pakistan.

The Assassin Bugs, Reduviidae, are carnivorous True Bugs, often noted for their ability as mimics, which enables them to strike rapidly at unsuspecting prey with their enlarged, stabbing proboscis. The Reduviinae is one of the largest subfamilies within the Reduviidae, currently comprising over 1070 species within 141 genera. However, it is probably paraphyletic (i.e. not all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of all members of the group are included in the group), despite the high level of similarity seen between members of the group, suggesting that it represents a sort of 'basic' Assassin Bug bodyplan from which more specialised groups have derived. The genus Acanthaspis currently contains 124 species, making it the second largest within the Reduviinae, and is particularly diverse in South Asia, making up 42 of the 98 species of Assassin Bug found in India.

In a paper published in the Pakistan Journal of Zoology on 9 February 2022, Syed Ishfaq Ali Shah of the Department of Entomology at the China Agricultural University, and the Entomology Section at the Central Cotton Research Institute, Azaz Ahmad of the Department of Entomology at the University of Agriculture, and Wanzhi Cai, also of the Department of Entomology at the China Agricultural University, describe a new species of Acanthaspis from Pakistan.

The new species is named Acanthaspis rafiqi, in honour of Muhammad Rafiq, the former head of the Entomology Section and Principal Scientific Officer at the Central Cotton Research Institute. The species is described from five specimens, a males and a female collected from the village of Arja in the Bagh district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir by Khifza Niaz and placed in the collection of the Pakistan Museum of Natural History, a male specimen collected from the Margalla Hills of Islamabad by Azaz Ahmad, and two further specimens found in the collection of the Pakistan Museum of Natural History, which were collected in the 1980s and bear the legend 'Arbro'; one of these was also collected in Islamabad, and the other has no collection data.

Acanthaspis rafiqi, male specimen in dorsal view. Scale bar is 3.00 mm. Shah et al. (2022).

Male specimens of Acanthaspis rafiqi range from 16.00 to 16.20 mm in length, while females range from 16.16 to 16.24 mm, both are black to dark chocolate-brown in colour, with contrasting beige spots. The bodies of these insects are roughly elliptical, with females being more rectangular, they have some hairs on their underside, but the upper side is generally hairless and smooth.

 

Acanthaspis rafiqi, female specimen in (A) dorsal and (B) ventral views. Scale bar is 3.00 mm. Shah et al. (2022).

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An Aphidlion preserved in Baltic Amber along with several Aphids.

The term 'Aphidlion' refers to the larvae of some Neuropteran Insects (Lacewings) which are specialised for hunting Aphids. They are related to Antlions, which are also the larvae of Neuropteran Insects, and which hunt Ants, but unlike Antlions, which are ambush specialists, they are free-ranging raptorial predators which actively hunt down their prey. The term Aphidlion is applied to the larvae of two different Neuropteran groups, the Green Lacewings, Chrysopidae, and the Brown Lacewings, Hemerobiidae, which were one thought to be sister groups but are currently thought to be only distantly related within the Neuroptera as a whole (it is also sometimes used for the larvae of Ladybird Beetles, which also feed on Aphids, but this usage for a very different group is confusing, and best avoided). 

Like other Lacewing larvae, Aphidlions are voracious predators with highly specialised feeding apparatus, with the upper and lower jaws fused to form a pair of feeding stylets, which are used to first inject their prey with venom, then digestive juices, and finally to suck out the prey's dissolved tissues. The stylets of Aphidlions tend to be simple and curved, unlike those of Antlions, which bear teeth, or the larvae of Mantis, Bearded, and Lance Lacewings, which have straight stylets. In addition, the body of Aphidlions is rather spindle-shaped compared to other Lacewing larvae.

Their ability to consume large numbers of Aphids in a relatively short period of time makes Aphidlions an important part of modern ecosystems, and has made them attractive to farmers and horticulturalists as a biological means of controlling Aphid populations, with several species used in this way. Aphidlions are also known in the fossil record, as inclusions in Cretaceous and Eocene ambers, although they are not as numerous as adult Lacewings. Based upon the morphology of these fossil Aphidlions, it is assumed that their ecological role is as ancient as the group (Neuropteran Insects formed a major part of Mesozoic ecosystms, ans were formerly far more numerous and diverse than they are today), although this is very hard to prove from isolated individuals.

In a paper published in the journal Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments on 25 January 2022, Joachim Haug of the Biocenter and GeoBio-Center at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Christine Kiesmüller of Cytology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Greifswald, Gideon Haug, also of the Biocenter at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Carolin Haug, again of the Biocenter and GeoBio-Center at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Marie Hörnig, also of Cytology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Greifswald, report the discovery of an Aphidlion along with several Aphids in a single piece of Eocene Baltic Amber, strongly supporting the idea that the ecological association between these groups existed by this time.

The amber used in the study was purchased from a dealer, Jonas Damzen, of Vilnius, Lithuania, and now resides in the Palaeo-Evo-Devo Research Group Collection of Arthropods at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. Baltic ambers predominantly come from the Blue-Earth Formation of Russia's Kaliningrad Peninsula. The age of Baltic Amber is not completely resolved, but most palaeontologists believe it to be of Late Eocene origin, making it between 38 and 34 million years old.

The amber piece described by Haug et al. contains a number of inclusions, including several Insect exuviae (shed skins), all to deformed to be identified, a large elongate Insect, which Haug et al. identify as an Aphidlion, and three smaller Insects with prominent Hemipteran-type beaks, which Haug et al. identify as Aphids.

 

Specimen PED 0229, Baltic amber. (a) Overview of the entire amber piece. (b) As in (a), colour-marked. (c) Aphidlion in dorso-lateral view. (d) Aphid specimen 1 in dorsal view. (e) Aphid specimen 2 in dorsal view. (f) Aphid specimen 3 in dorsal view. Haug et al. (2022).

Many details on the larger Insect are concealed, but it is elongate, with a distinct head and body, and the head bears three sets of paired structures, iterpreted as antennae, stylets and labial palps. The antennae are elongate and split into three sections, a short wide base, a long, narrow middle section and an tapering tip. The stylets are simple and curved, lacking any teeth, as would be predicted for an Aphidlion. The labial palps have two distinct elements, with the proximal (base) element being obscured and the distal element being club shaped.

 

Specimen PED 0229, Baltic amber, continued. (a)-(c) Aphidlion. (a) In ventro-lateral view. (b) In (largely) ventral view; note that the head is seen in anterior view. (c) Close-up of head in frontal view (top), same image colour-marked (bottom). (d) Aphid specimen 2 in ventral view. (e) Aphid specimen 3 in ventral view. (f) Aphid specimen 3 in lateral view. (g) Close-up of aphid 2 in lateral view. Abbreviations: at, antenna; hc, head capsule; lp, labial palp; sy, stylet. Haug et al. (2022).

This specimen is too obscured to be identified to species level, but can be identified as an Aphidlion based upon its short antennae, prominent labial palps, and sickle-shaped mandibles. These traits are also found in some Beetle larvae, but these would be expected to have some other features, such as paired maxillary palps, which are absent in the specimen. The general morphology of both the specimen's body and it's appendages also match that of the Aphidlion-larvae of a Brown Lacewing, Hemerobiidae.

The three Aphids are roughly similar in form, but differ in size, with the largest specimen being about 1 mm in length, and the other two only 0.6 mm. The bodies of these specimens are differentiated into heads and trunks, with the heads wider than they are long, and partly covered by the forward part of the trunk. They have prominent antennae protruding antero-laterally from the head, and mouth parts modified to form an elongate beak. The front three segments of the trunk are prominent, each being longer than the head and supporting a pair of 'z' shaped legs. The segments of the posterior part of the trunk are less clearly defined, but there appear to be 9-10, terminating with a compound structure of several segments. 

The similar appearance of the three Aphid specimens suggests that they belong to the same species, with the larger specimen probably being a later instar (developmental stage separated by a moult) than the two smaller specimens. Aphids are very common in Baltic Amber, although it is difficult to differentiate the long winged developmental stages to species level. Based upon the general form of these specimens, Haug et al. suggest that they might belong to the genus Germaraphis.

The amber piece appears to contain the Aphidlion-larvae of a Brown Lacewing, a group which today specialise in predating soft-bodied prey, particularly Aphids. Brown Lacewings are common in the fossil record, and are often found in environments which also support aphids, and preserved larvae are much less common than adults (excluding specimens preserved in amber, most Lacewing fossils are isolated wings, which the larvae lack), and a direct association between these Insects and Aphids in the pasr has been hard to prove. The specimen examined by Haug et al. shows the co-existence of a Brown Lacewing Aphidlion and several Aphids, showing that they were present in the same environment, and therefore that a predator-prey relationship was highly likely, at least as far back as the Eocene.

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Halyomorpha halys: The invasive Brown Marmorated Stink Bug found in the UK.

The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha halys, has arrived in the UK, threatening fruit and vegetable crops during summer and heading inside people's homes during winter, according to a press release issued by the Natural History Museum on 1 March 2021. One of the first Stink Bugs to be identified was caught in the Museum's wildlife garden at South Kensington by Museum scientists. Native to China, Japan and Korea, brown marmorated stink bugs are fast breeding insects that come in various shades of brown and grow up to 1.7 centimetres long. The stink bugs get their name from the foul smell they exude when they feel threatened.

 

A Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha halys, feeding on a Plant. Stink bugs are sometimes called shield bugs due to their shield-shaped bodies. They emit an unpleasant odour via glands inside the body to ward off predators. Tim Haye/CABI/Natural History Museum.

During the summer, these pesky pests feast on fruits and vegetables such as Apples, Pears, Peaches, Tomatoes and Sweetcorn by piercing the surface and sucking out the juice. They distort the produce and leave behind rotting spots and blemishes which can make the Plant inedible or unsellable. Max Barclay, the Senior Curator in Charge of Beetles at the Museum, says, 'If you eat a damaged fruit, there's no risk to your health. The fruit just doesn't look beautiful, so the sale value is reduced. These fruits usually end up as juice.' Sometimes Stink Bugs can end up in products made from fruits, such as wine, and contaminate the flavour. This often results in the entire crop being thrown away, a huge waste and loss of profit. Barclay says, 'If you have a bunch of Grapes that contain Stink Bugs and you grind them up into wine, you get the smell of Stink Bugs in the drink and people don't like that. You have the same problem with some Ladybirds which get into wine and spoil the taste of it.'

 

Newly hatched Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs. Eggs are normally laid on the underside of leaves in masses of up to 28, and nymphs grow into adults within 35-45 days. Gary Bernon/USDA/APHIS/Bugwood/Wikimedia Commons.

Ancestrally, Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs would hibernate in abandoned caves throughout winter. In inhabited areas, they are drawn to people's homes for warmth and shelter. These Stink Bugs were accidently introduced to the US in the mid-nineties and since then, have spread to 44 states. In North America, the Stink Bug population has grown exponentially and there are records of thousands gathering in houses. 'One of the reasons Stink Bugs are considered pests is because they cluster around window frames in large numbers and leave droppings,' says Barclay. 'If you try and sweep them away, they will produce these unpleasant smelling oils which will stain the furniture. If the oils get on your fingers, it's really hard to remove.' After visiting the US in 2014 and noticing a lot of Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs, Barclay predicted these pests would eventually arrive in the UK too, especially as they had already formed populations in some parts of Europe such as Switzerland, France and Italy. During that year, two Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs were found on imported timber at British borders. 'Once these things make a foothold, they establish pretty quickly,' says Barclay. 'We've seen this with a lot of invasive species before, like the Harlequin Ladybird. You find one or two, then five or six and then they're everywhere.'

 

Common signs of Stink Bug feeding include spots or blotches, grooves and discolouration. Rob Morisson/USDA/ARS.

Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs are considered an invasive species. The horticultural research organisation National Institute of Agricultural Botany's East Malling Research Station in Kent, has co-ordinated a trapping programme, funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to monitor the arrival of Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs. It involves lacing a small piece of double-sided sticky plastic with synthetically produced sex pheromone to attract the pest.

The Museum hosted a trap in its wildlife garden and last summer, caught a male stink bug. Another male was found on a pheromone trap in RSPB Rainham Marshes in Essex. These were the first two samples collected in 2020. At the end of that year, a resident in Surrey found one hibernating in her house.

'The trapping programme is more useful as a monitoring device than a controlling one,' explains Max Barclay. 'It's very difficult to control Brown Marmorated Stink Bug populations by killing individuals. Trapping is a good way of detecting the presence of the species which might influence your other behaviour, like Bug proofing your house or growing a different crop that is less susceptible to this pest.' 

A team of UK-based researchers, including Max Barclay, Glen Powell at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany's East Malling Research Station and Andrew Evans from Scotland's Rural College have now published a scientific paper on the Stink Bug in British Journal of Entomology and Natural History. The researchers looked at how global warming will change the likely spread and establishment of Brown Marmorated Stink Bug within Britain and predicted the Bugs will inhabit London, as well as some parts of eastern England where it is the warmest.

Researchers at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany's East Malling Research Station are worried about the threat Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs pose to British crops. The species has a wide diet of over a hundred agricultural and ornamental flora species and could damage a large number of Plants in gardens and farms in the UK. Experts are currently researching how to manage this issue to avoid millions of pounds of economic damage.

 

Male Stink Bugs release an aggregation pheromone which attracts other Stink Bugs to form a mass gathering in one area. Mike Lewinski/Flikr.

The last invasive Insect species to hit the headlines in the UK was the Harlequin Ladybird, Harmonia axyridis. Native to Asia, this Ladybird was noticed by the public in 2004, eliciting both curiosity and caution. Soon, they multiplied to all over the country and they are now the most common Ladybird species in the UK. Invasive species like the Harlequin Ladybird and Brown Marmorated Stink Bug are able to enter the UK through increasing global trade and thrive due to climate change. Stink Bugs often hide in shipping crates and wooden pallets during winter - items which are moved around a lot. When spring arrives, the insects could be in a different country thus providing an opportunity to expand into a new part of the world.

At this stage, there isn't any evidence that shows the Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs have started to breed and establish populations in the UK so monitoring via pheromone traps is really important. If further bugs are detected, the National Institute of Agricultural Botany aim sto follow this up with field sampling around sites of capture. Detection and monitoring of early populations allows the National Institute of Agricultural Botany to alert growers of vulnerable crops who can then put crop protection strategies into place.

Fortunately, the UK can benefit from existing research that has taken place elsewhere in the world such as the US, which will help in developing effective control strategies. One idea is to attract large number of Stink Bugs into a net trap using pheromone and then treat them with a Plant protection product.

 

Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs can be easily mistaken for native Shield Bugs which also smell. Tim Haye/CABI.

If members of the public think they have found a Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, the National Institute of Agricultural Botany encourages them to first check online to make sure it hasn't been confused with a native species such the Green Shield Bug which turns brown over winter. 'There's also a Sloe Bug named after the fruit they use to make Sloe gin,' adds Max Barclay. 'It's purplish brown and quite hairy under the microscope which the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug is not. But to the inexperienced eye, it would look very similar.'

If it turns out to be a brown marmorated stink bug, the scientists request that it is captured in a small container and posted to the Museum or National Institute of Agricultural Botany's East Malling Research Station. Images of stink bug suspects can also be emailed to Max Barclay or National Institute of Agricultural Botany's East Malling Research Station or for confirmation.

Max Barclay says, 'The Insect fauna changes all the time. We have about 27 000 species of Insects in the UK and about 5% of them have arrived here in the last few decades. It's only occasionally we get an invasive species that draws attention to itself by being a nuisance species or reaching very large populations. The last one was the Harlequin Ladybird, which was about 15 years ago. Now it's the Stink Bug.' 

Further information regarding the brown marmorated stink bug and its likely spread and impact within the UK is available via a recent webinar produced by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.

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Capricephala chiaroscuro: A new species of Ambush Bug from the Dominican Republic.

Ambush Bugs, Phymatinae, are highly specialised Assassin Bugs, Reduviidae, noted for their highly modified forelegs, which are modified for seizing prey in a manner similar to Mantises. Ambush Bugs are, as their name suggests, ambush predators, and are capable of taking prey many times their own size. Ambush Bugs are global in distribution, but are more abundant in the tropics, with the Greater Antilles Islands being particularly rich in species.

In a paper published in the journal Insect Systematics and Diversity on 12 July 2019, Paul Masonick of the Department of Entomology of the University of California, Riverside, describes a new species of Ambush Bug from the Parque Nacional Sierra de Baoruco, in Pedernales Province, Dominican Republic.

The new species is named Capricephala chiaroscuro, where 'Capricephala' means 'Goat horns' in reference to four horn-like spines on the head of the species, and 'chiaroscuro' is an Italian term which refers to the composition of light and shadow in a picture, in reference to the contrasting colours of the species. The species is described from a single female specimen from the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, uncovered by Masonick during a review of the Ambush Bug material there. This specimen is 11.7 mm in length, making the species one of the largest Ambush Bugs described to date. The specimen was collected in June 2005 by entomologist Steve Lingafelter, in an area of cloud forest at an altitude of 1150 m.

Capricephala chiaroscuro, female specimen in dorsal view. Masonick (2019).

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Archetingis ladinica: A Lace Bug from the Middle Triassic of the Swiss side of Monte San Giorgio.

Lace Bugs, Tingidae, are small (2-10 mm) members of the True Bug Order Hemiptera, which get their common name from the lacy pattern of the veins of their wings. They are plant parasites, with each species having a specific host, and many species are significant agricultural pests. The oldest known fossil Lace Bugs date back to the beginning of the Cretaceous, however the global distribution of the group, combined with the wides range of host plants, which includes Mosses, Conifers and Horsetails, suggests that the group was established long before the breakup of the supercontinent of Pangea in the Late Jurassic.

In a paper published in the journal Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia in March 2018, Matteo Montagna of the Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali - Produzione, Territorio, Agroenergia at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Laura Strada of the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra “Ardito Desio” at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Paride Dioli of the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano, and Andrea Tintori, also of the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra “Ardito Desio” at the Università degli Studi di Milano, describe a new species of Lace Bug from the Swiss part of the Middle Triassic Monte San Giorgio Fossil-Lagerstätte.

The Middle Triassic Monte San Giorgio Fossil-Lagerstätte outcrops on the mountain of the same name, overlooking Lake Lugano on the Swiss-Italian Border. The site is noted for the production of Marine Vertebrates of Anisian (247-242 million years ago) to Ladinian (242-247) age, for which it has been made a UNESCO World Heritage List site. However, the site does not simply preserve marine faunas, but preserves a complex paleoenvironment with a shallow lagoon with a surrounding area that contains numerous small pools and streams, connected to a marine environment with a carbonate platform. The Lower Kalkschieferzone beds on the Swiss side of the mountain have been dated to 239.51 million years ago (Early Ladinian) and have produced several Insect fossils, including Mayflies, Beetles and Bristletails.

The new Lace Bug is named Archetingis ladinica, meaning 'Ancient Lace Bug from the Ladiaian'. It is described from a single specimen from the Lower Kalkschieferzone beds. This specimen is 11.8 mm in length, larger than any living species of Lace Bug, though many Insect groups produce fossils larger than anything still living, including Bristletails from the Kalkschieferzone.

(A) Archetingis ladinica obtained by merging slab and counterslab; (B) reconstruction of Archetingis ladinica,  features not preserved in the fossil (i.e., antennae and eyes) in grey. The white scale bar corresponds to 1 mm. Drawing by Matteo Montagna. Montagna et al. (2018).

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Neotapirissus reticularis: A new species of Planthopper from Hainan Island, China.

Planthoppers, Fulgoromorpha, are members of the True Bug order, Hemiptera, distinguished by their enlarged back legs, which enable them to leap in a similar way to Grasshoppers. Like many True Bugs they feed on plants by drilling into them with specialised mouth parts to drill into their host and drain their sap, and while few species are serious pests in themselves, they are often vectors for plant diseases. Planthoppers tend to be well camouflaged, with many species mimicking leaves or other plant-parts.

In a paper published in the journal Entomological Science on 22 July 2016, Rui Meng and Yinglun Wang of the Key Laboratory of Plant Protection Resources and Pest Management at the Entomological Museum of Northwest A&F University, describe a new species of Planthopper from Hainan Island in southern China.

The species is placed in a new genus, Neotapirissus, meaning 'new-Tapirissus', in reference to a previously described genus from Laos, and given the specific name reticularis, in reference to the venation of the modified forewings, which is reticulated (net-like). The species is described from three specimens, a male, 5.8 mm in length, and two females, 6.1 and 6.2 mm in length, all are black and brown in colour.

Neotapirissus reticularis, male, (1) dorsal view, (2) face, (3) lateral view. Scale bars, 1mm. Meng & Wang (2016).

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