Abstract
Fossil leaf-mining caterpillars from amber are firstly described as the new species Phyllocnistis cretacea from Upper Cretaceous Myanmar amber and Phyllonorycter inopinata from Eocene Baltic amber. Both show typical traits of leaf-miners, and specifically, of later instars of caterpillars of their respective genera. The findings give further evidence for these being quite old and conservative genera of Gracillariidae. These are basal Ditrysia which retained the larval feeding and mining live mode. The findings also represent direct fossil evidence of individual stages of hypermetamorphosis known from extant Gracillariidae. The finds from the Upper Cretaceous and their putative identifications give direct evidence for a minimal geological age for the genus Phyllocnistis (Phyllocnistinae) and, by indirect conclusion based on their divergence, also for the genus Phyllonorycter in a sister clade (Lithocolletinae). It also predates mining habit closer to the time of radiation of their angiospermous host plants.
Highlights
Lepidoptera are exceedingly rare in the fossil record (Grimaldi and Engel 2005; Sohn et al 2012, 2013)
Fossil leaf-mining caterpillars from amber are firstly described as the new species Phyllocnistis cretacea from Upper Cretaceous Myanmar amber and Phyllonorycter inopinata from Eocene Baltic amber
The findings represent direct fossil evidence of individual stages of hypermetamorphosis known from extant Gracillariidae
Summary
Lepidoptera are exceedingly rare in the fossil record (Grimaldi and Engel 2005; Sohn et al 2012, 2013). As a working hypothesis for further studies in fossil Lepidoptera it was assumed that the larval stages of Lepidoptera, caterpillars, allow identification and geological dating of taxa not yet found as imaginal stages in ambers. This would be due to their different feeding and live mode, habitat, taphonomy and their smaller size in comparison to the average size of ambers. Leaf-mining caterpillars are quite small larval stages being internal feeders restricted in body size by their well-protected mode of living within leaves Taphonomy of such internal feeders, this is inclusion of such larvae outside their habitat by liquid resin, seems a quite unlikely event. Despite of long-term scientific studies in Baltic amber since the 19th century such inclusions of leaf-mining caterpillars had to date not been identified
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