Discovery of the Puparia of a Whitefly Species Found on Malvaceae in the Pliocene Rajdanda Formation, Jharkhand, Eastern India

Abstract

A new genus and species of fossil whitefly, Praealeurolobus indicus gen. et sp. nov., is described and illustrated based on puparia found on leaves of a malvaceous plant from the Pliocene Rajdanda Formation in Eastern India. It is the first record of whitefly puparia on leaves from the Neogene deposits of Asia and the second taxon formally named and described from such adpression fossils. The cephalothorax of some of the puparia has a large, irregularly shaped hole with jagged edges, typical of the emergence holes of parasitoids of modern-day whiteflies and represents the earliest record of parasitism on whiteflies. This finding enriches our knowledge of the fossil record of Aleyrodidae in connection with allied fossils and provides new insight into the ecological interactions of the palaeobiota and taphonomy of fossils preserved in the Pliocene Rajdanda Formation.