Araeoanasillus leptosomus gen. et sp. nov., (Hemiptera, Cercopoidea, Sinoalidae?), a New Froghopper from Mid-Cretaceous Burmese Amber with Evidence of Its Possible Host Plant.

Abstract

A new genus and species of froghopper, Araeoanasillus leptosomus gen. et sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea, Sinoalidae?), is described from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. The new genus possesses the following diagnostic characteristics: slender, medium size body (length, 7.0 mm) with head longer than wide, round eyes; antennae slender with eight antennomeres; pedicel very short, shorter than scape; pronotum with a length/width ratio of 2.4; metatibia with three spines, including one short spine near base and two adjacent, long, thick spines near apex; a single series of 16 thick apical teeth (comb) at metatibial apex; tegmen narrow with a length/width ratio of 3.2; tegmen with coastal area and stigmal cell punctate; CuP meeting base of CuA2; and MP branching at middle of wing. In hind wing, Cu vein forked once. A series of plant trichomes adjacent and attached to the specimen suggests that the froghopper's host plant was a fern.