Fossil Liposcelididae and the lice ages (Insecta: Psocodea)

Abstract

Fossilized, winged adults belonging to the psocopteran family Liposcelididae are reported in amber from the mid-Cretaceous ( ca 100 Myr) of Myanmar (described as Cretoscelis burmitica , gen. et sp. n.) and the Miocene ( ca 20 Myr) of the Dominican Republic ( Belaphopsocus dominicus sp. n.). Cretoscelis is an extinct sister group to all other Liposcelididae and the family is the free-living sister group to the true lice (order Phthiraptera, all of which are ectoparasites of birds and mammals). A phylogenetic hypothesis of relationships among genera of Liposcelididae, including fossils, reveals perfect correspondence between the chronology of fossils and cladistic rank of taxa. Lice and Liposcelididae minimally diverged 100 Myr, perhaps even in the earliest Cretaceous 145 Myr or earlier, in which case the hosts of lice would have been early mammals, early birds and possibly other feathered theropod dinosaurs, as well as haired pterosaurs.