The first fossil Coelidiinae: A new genus and species from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae)

Abstract

A new fossil genus and species, Cretacoelidia viraktamathi Wang, Dietrich & Zhang gen. et sp. nov., of the family Cicadellidae from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber is described and illustrated. The extinct fossil genus resembles the type-genus of subfamily Coelidiinae, Coelidia Germar, 1821, in having an obtusely angled head and crown elevated above the eyes, but differs in having the lateral margin of the crown divergent distally, its subapical part depressed and the anterior margin of the crown elevated and carinate. The new taxon is the only fossil definitely assignable to the extant leafhopper subfamily Coelidiinae and only the third modern leafhopper subfamily recorded from the Cretaceous. It provides evidence of the long-term presence of Coelidiinae in the Indomalayan region and insights into the evolution and paleobiogeography of the family Cicadellidae.