Evolutionary insights from a rare male palm bug (Hemiptera: Thaumastocoridae) in Cretaceous amber

We report the earliest occurrence of the hemipteran family Thaumastocoridae, a Gondwana relict lineage with representatives notorious for the damage they cause to palm crops. The new taxon, Popovocoris punctatus nov. gen. et sp., is based on a unique male specimen exquisitely preserved in Cretaceous Burmese amber and exhibits a dorsoventrally flattened body with fine punctate sculpturing, four-segmented antennae, areolate hemelytra, and distinctive forewings with a dull-white membrane lacking visible venation.

By undertaking a morphology-based cladistic analysis, this specimen is placed within Cimicomorpha, specifically within the extant family Thaumastocoridae, and with high certainty in the subfamily Thaumastocorinae, based on key features such as asymmetrical male genitalia. This discovery indicates that the evolution of asymmetrical genitalia in thaumastocorids dates to at least since the early Late Cretaceous. The affinity of this specimen with Thaumastocorinae, predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere (particularly Australia and southern India), provides compelling evidence for a Gondwanan origin of the subfamily.

Furthermore, this finding supports the hypothesis of Gondwanan connections for certain Burmese amber taxa, contributing to our understanding of Cretaceous palaeobiogeography and the evolutionary history of this enigmatic hemipteran family, while highlighting the unusually low representation of Cimicomorpha in Cretaceous ambers.