A miniaturized beetle larva in Cretaceous Burmese amber: reinterpretation of a fossil “strepsipteran triungulin”

Abstract

A wingless and eyeless tiny fossil embedded in Cretaceous amber from Myanmar is described and interpreted phylogenetically as beetle larva, very likely belonging to a cucujiform group of Coleoptera with parasitic habits, probably the family Ripiphoridae. Features supporting this are the lobe-like terminal elements of the legs and the pattern of setae on the abdomen. However the larva display specialized features differing from immatures of extant ripiphorid species, such as for instance the absence of stemmata and the presence of ventral transverse rows of spines. An earlier tentative assignement of a similar larva embedded in Cretaceaous amber from Manitoba (Canada) to Strepsiptera is not followed here. We suggest that this larva is closely related to the beetle larva described here.