Abstract

Pondweed bugs (Hemiptera: Mesoveliidae), considered a sister group to all other Gerromorpha, are exceedingly rare as fossils. Therefore, each new discovery of a fossil mesoveliid is of high interest, giving new insight into their early evolutionary history and diversity and enabling the testing of their proposed relationships. Here, we report the discovery of new mesoveliid material from Spanish Lower Cretaceous (Albian) amber, which is the first such find in Spanish amber. To date, fossil records of this family only include one species from French Kimmeridgian as compression fossils, two species in French amber (Albian-Cenomanian boundary), and one in Dominican amber (Miocene). The discovery of two males and one female described and figured as Glaesivelia pulcherrima Sánchez-García & Solórzano Kraemer gen. et sp. n., and a single female described and figured as Iberovelia quisquilia Sánchez-García & Nel, gen. et sp. n., reveals novel combinations of traits related to some genera currently in the subfamily Mesoveliinae. Brief comments about challenges facing the study of fossil mesoveliids are provided, showing the necessity for a revision of the existing phylogenetic hypotheses. Some of the specimens were studied using infrared microscopy, a promising alternative to the systematic study of organisms preserved in amber that cannot be clearly visualised. The new taxa significantly expand the fossil record of the family and shed new light on its palaeoecology. The fossils indicate that Mesoveliidae were certainly diverse by the Cretaceous and that numerous tiny cryptic species living in humid terrestrial to marginal aquatic habitats remain to be discovered. Furthermore, the finding of several specimens as syninclusions suggests aggregative behaviour, thereby representing the earliest documented evidence of such ethology.

Highlights

  • Semi-aquatic bugs (Heteroptera, Gerromorpha) are the most successful group of insects inhabiting the water surface in a wide range of habitats, including the open ocean (Andersen, 1979; Wang et al, 2016)

  • We report new records of Early Cretaceous mesoveliids which are of significance for the palaeodiversity and palaeobiogeographical distribution of the family and comprise two new genera and species found in amber from Peñacerrada, Spain

  • The present study is based on four fossil Mesoveliidae occurring in Lower Cretaceous amber from Peñacerrada

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Summary

Introduction

Semi-aquatic bugs (Heteroptera, Gerromorpha) are the most successful group of insects inhabiting the water surface in a wide range of habitats, including the open ocean (Andersen, 1979; Wang et al, 2016). Mesoveliidae, so called ‘water treaders’ or ‘pondweed bugs’, are considered a sister group to all other families of the infraorder Gerromorpha (Andersen, 1982; Damgaard, 2008a; Damgaard, 2008b). The family has only 46 extant species in 12 genera (Andersen & Weir, 2004; Damgaard et al, 2012), but inhabits various types of humid terrestrial (hygropetric) to marginal aquatic and aquatic habitats (Andersen, 1982). According to Andersen (1982), the family contains the subfamilies Madeoveliinae and Mesoveliinae, the monophyly of Mesoveliinae and its largest and most cosmopolitan genus, Mesovelia Mulsant & Rey, 1852, has been recently questioned by Damgaard et al (2012) based on molecular data

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