A marine water strider (Hemiptera: Veliidae) from Dominican amber

Abstract

AbstractA fossil water strider, Halovelia electrodominica sp. n., is described from the Oligo-Miocene Dominican amber based upon a couple seemingly trapped while they were mating. This is the first fossil record of the genus Halovelia (Haloveliinae, Veliidae) and, since most living haloveliine water striders are marine, probably also the first record of a marine insect from amber. Extant haloveliines are confined to the Indo-West Pacific region and the Dominican amber species therefore represent another example of remarkable geographical extinction in the Caribbean during the late Tertiary.