The first Mesozoic froghopper in amber from northern Myanmar (Hemiptera, Cercopoidea, Sinoalidae)

Abstract

Representatives of the froghopper family Sinoalidae were exclusively known from Jurassic deposits in northeastern China. A new taxon, Fangyuania xiai Chen, Szwedo and Wang, gen. et sp. nov., is erected from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber and assigned to this family. The remarkable new sinoalid distinctly differs from its con-familial Jurassic relatives in having a tegmen with cell between costal margin and Pc + CP broad, stem MP + CuA relatively long and connecting crossvein cua-cup just at its bifurcation, and having a hind wing with posterior margin strongly ripple-like and wing tip with narrow peripheric membrane wrinkled. This finding greatly expands the duration and geographic distribution of the family Sinoalidae. The new taxon, as the first Cercopoidea reported in Mesozoic amber, provides some insights on morphological diversification and evolutionary history of early Cercopoidea and Clypeata as well.