The Reduviidae is a large cosmopolitan family of the suborder Heteroptera of the order Hemiptera. Among the Hemiptera and together with the Nabidae almost all species are terrestrial ambush predators; most other predatory Hemiptera are aquatic. The main examples of non-predatory Reduviidae are some blood-sucking ectoparasites in the subfamily Triatominae, with a few species from South America noted for their ability to transmit Chagas disease. Though spectacular exceptions are known, most members of the family are fairly easily recognizable; they have a relatively narrow neck, sturdy build, and formidable curved proboscis. Large specimens should be handled with caution, if at all, because they sometimes defend themselves with a very painful stab from the proboscis.
The members of the Triatominae, a subfamily of the Reduviidae, are also known as conenose bugs, kissing bugs, or vampire bugs. Other local names for them used in the Americas include barbeiros, vinchucas, pitos, chipos and chinches. Most of the 130 or more species of this subfamily feed on vertebrate blood; a very small portion of species feed on invertebrates. They are mainly found and widespread in the Americas, with a few species present in Asia and Africa. These bugs usually share shelter with nesting vertebrates, from which they suck blood. In areas where Chagas disease occurs, all triatomine species are potential vectors of the Chagas disease parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, but only those species that are well adapted to living with humans are considered important vectors. Also, proteins released from their bites have been known to induce anaphylaxis in sensitive and sensitized individuals.
The Gelastocoridae is a family of about 100 species of insects in the suborder Heteroptera. These fall into two genera, about 15 species of Gelastocoris from the New World and 85 of Nerthra from the Old World. They are reminiscent of toads both in the warty appearance and hopping movements of some species.
Triatoma is a genus of assassin bug in the subfamily Triatominae. The members of Triatoma are blood-sucking insects that can transmit serious diseases, such as Chagas disease. Their saliva may also trigger allergic reactions in sensitive individuals, up to and including severe anaphylactic shock.
Panstrogylus geniculatus is a blood-sucking sylvatic insect noted as a putative vector of minor importance in the transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi to humans; this is a parasite, which causes Chagas disease. The insect is described as sylvatic; subsisting primarily in humid forests, and is also known to inhabit vertebrate nesting places such as those of the armadillo, and is also involved in enzootic transmission of T. cruzi to those species. It has wide distribution throughout 16 Latin American countries.
Triatoma nigromaculata is a sylvatic species of insect usually found in hollow trees, in vertebrate nests on trees and occasionally in human dwellings. It usually lives in relatively humid forests at high altitudes on mountain regions and foot hills. As all members of the subfamily Triatominae, T. nigromaculata is a blood-sucking bug and a potential vector of Chagas disease. This species is distributed mainly in Venezuela, but some specimens have also been found in Perú and Colombia (Cauca).
Triatoma dominicana is an extinct species of assassin bug in the subfamily Triatominae, the kissing bugs known from early Miocene Burdigalian stage Dominican amber deposits on the island of Hispaniola.
Trypanosoma antiquus is an extinct species of kinetoplastid, a monophyletic group of unicellular parasitic flagellate protozoa.
Albicoccus is an extinct genus of scale insect in the extinct monotypic family Albicoccidae, containing a single species, Albicoccus dimai. The genus is solely known from the Albian - Cenomanian Burmese amber deposits.
Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. The amber is of significant palaeontological interest due to the diversity of flora and fauna contained as inclusions, particularly arthropods including insects and arachnids but also birds, lizards, snakes, frogs and fragmentary dinosaur remains. The amber has been known and commercially exploited since the first century AD, and has been known to science since the mid-nineteenth century. Research on the deposit has attracted controversy due to the potential role of the amber trade in funding internal conflict in Myanmar and hazardous working conditions in the mines where it is collected.
Burmaleon is an extinct genus of lacewing in the family Osmylidae known from fossils found in Asia. The genus contains a single species, Burmaleon magnificus.
Alienopterus brachyelytrus is an extinct insect described from a 99 million year old fossil found in Burmese amber from the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar. It was the first known member of the order Alienoptera until 2018, when the second and third members of the order, Caputoraptor elegans, and Alienopterella stigmatica were described. A. brachyelytrus has characters that are shared with cockroaches and mantids and is thought to represent either the sister taxon, or an ancestor to mantids.
2019 in paleoentomology is a list of new fossil insect taxa that were described during the year 2019, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleoentomology that were scheduled to occur during the year.
Discoscapa apicula is an extinct species of crabronid wasp, formerly considered one of the two oldest-known species of bees. The species was described from an amber inclusion in Burmese Amber in 2020 by George Poinar Jr., a zoologist at Oregon State University. The fossil was found in a mine in the Hukawng Valley of northern Myanmar and is believed to date from the Cretaceous Period, 100 million years ago, the same age as Melittosphex burmensis, likewise previously considered the oldest known bee species; as it comes from the same amber deposit, these two specimens are considered to be the same approximate age. More recent research has concluded that D. apicula is a wasp belonging to the subfamily Crabroninae, placed in its own tribe, Discoscapini.
Oculudentavis is an extinct genus of lizard of uncertain taxonomic placement, originally identified as an avialan dinosaur. It contains two known species, O. khaungraae and O. naga. Each species is known from one partial fossil specimen in Burmese amber, which differ in several proportions. Their skulls measure 1.4–1.7 centimetres (0.55–0.67 in) in length, indicating that Oculudentavis would have been comparable in size with the modern bee hummingbird if it were an avialan. Both specimens were retrieved from 99-million-year-old deposits of the Hukawng Basin in Kachin State, northern Myanmar. The type specimen of O. khaungraae is embroiled in controversy regarding its identity and the ethical issues surrounding the acquisition and study of Burmese amber. The original description advocating for an avialan identity was published in Nature, but has since then been retracted from the journal.
2015 in paleoentomology is a list of new fossil insect taxa that were described during the year 2016, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleoentomology that were scheduled to occur during the year.
Burmese amber is fossil resin dating to the early Late Cretaceous Cenomanian age recovered from deposits in the Hukawng Valley of northern Myanmar. It is known for being one of the most diverse Cretaceous age amber paleobiotas, containing rich arthropod fossils, along with uncommon vertebrate fossils and even rare marine inclusions. A mostly complete list of all taxa described up to the end of 2023 can be found in Ross (2024).
Yuripopovinidae is an extinct family of Coreoidea Hemipteran true bugs. Member species are known from the Early Cretaceous and early Late Cretaceous of Asia and northern Gondwana. Among the distinguishing characters are "the hemelytral costal vein apically much thickened and pterostigma-like, the corium with two large cells separated by one longitudinal straight vein." Dehiscensicoridae, described from the Yixian Formation of China has been deemed a junior synonym of Yuripopovinidae per Du et al. (2019). The family was named after Russian paleoentomologist Yuri Alexandrovich Popov.
Cretamystilus is an extinct genus of mirid insect in the tribe Mecistoscelini known from a fossil preserved in a piece of Cenomanian Burmese amber from the Hukawng Valley, Myanmar. Cretamystilus, which was the first extinct genus to be named in 2021, contains a single species, C. herczeki. Cretamystilus is the first member of the Miridae in the fossil record known to date. It probably had a host association with bamboo plants, which is only hypothesized, and morphological characters of the holotype and similarity to the extant genus Mystilus are also present in Cretamystilus.
Liadopsyllidae is an extinct family of hemipteran insects belonging to Psylloidea ranging from the Early Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous. The family was named by Andrey Vasilyevich Martynov in 1926. They are the earliest known members of Psylloidea, with modern members of the group not known until the Paleogene, as such, they have been suggested to be a paraphyletic assemblage ancestral to modern psylloids. The family Malmopsyllidae has been subsumed into this family, but is considered distinct by some authors.
