The Oldest Representatives of Tree Crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae; Oecanthinae) from Northern Myanmar

Abstract

The abundance of insects in Burmese amber illustrates a highly diverse insect community of the mid-Cretaceous, but the records of crickets are relatively rare. Here, we erect two new genera with two new species, Birmanioecanthus haplostichus gen. et sp. nov. and Apiculatus cretaceus gen. et sp. nov., based on two new specimens from northern Myanmar amber. These new species can be assigned to the subfamily Oecanthinae (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) by their prognathous head, slender body and metatibiae, and protibiae with large tympana. These new findings are the first and earliest fossil record of tree crickets and shed light on the evolution of Oecanithinae.

New Cretaceous crickets of the subfamilies Nemobiinae and Podoscirtinae (Orthoptera, Grylloidea: Trigonidiidae, Oecanthidae) attest the antiquity of these clades

“…Adult cricket fossils are exceedingly rare in Mesozoic amber. They include Birmaninemobius hirsutus Xu et al 2020 b from earliest Cenomanian Burmese amber (98.79 ± 0.62 Ma), which belongs to the Trigonidiinae (Trigonidiidae) as it shares several of the apomorphies used to describe this subfamily (Xu et al 2020 b ; Desutter-Grandcolas et al 2021); the oecanthine Birmanioecanthus haplostichus Yuan et al , 2022 and Apiculatus cretaceus Yuan et al , 2022, and the two fossils from Albian–Cenomanian French amber described in the present paper, i.e. Palaeonemobius occidentalis Laurent and Desutter-Grandcolas, gen. nov., sp.…”

“…In total, among the 12 fossils now listed for the Trigonidiidae, seven could be attributed to the Trigonidiinae (including Birmaninemobius hirsutus Xu et al, 2020b as a representative of its stem group, although described as a Nemobiinae), two juveniles could be attributed to the Nemobiinae, and two could not be reasonably considered; Curvospirus huzhengkun Liu et al 2022 clearly belongs to Trigonidiidae, but its morphological features do not allow it to be classified in either the Trigonidiinae, or the Nemobiinae, as it presents characters of both subfamilies in addition to original ones (Liu et al 2022). Apart from a few representatives of morphologically well-characterized clades (such as the mole crickets (Gryllotalpoidae Gryllotalpidae; see Xu et al 2022), the scaly crickets (Grylloidea Mogoplistidae Mogoplistinae; see Gorochov, 2010), the prognathous Oecanthidae Oecanthinae (see Yuan et al 2022), or very recent specimens that belong to modern genera, fossil crickets can prove quite hard to classify in relation to modern taxa, especially if they are isolated wing imprints, or, like many inclusions in Cenozoic amber, juveniles.…”

“…Recently, 11 very well-preserved fossil crickets have been discovered and described from early- to mid-Cretaceous amber of France and Myanmar. Thanks to their excellent state of preservation, these specimens have been described as precisely as extant taxa, and the presence of apomorphic characters that define the cricket clades could be checked, even if seven are juveniles (Perrichot et al 2002; Poinar et al 2020; Wang et al 2020; Xu et al 2020 a , b , 2022; Gorochov 2010; Jiang et al 2022; Liu et al 2022; Yuan et al 2022).…”

“…taxa, and the presence of apomorphic characters that define the cricket clades could be checked, even if seven are juveniles (Perrichot et al 2002;Poinar et al 2020;Wang et al 2020;Xu et al 2020aXu et al , b, 2022Gorochov 2010;Jiang et al 2022;Liu et al 2022;Yuan et al 2022).…”

Reconciliation between neontology and paleontology in the Gryllidea (Orthoptera, Ensifera): reinterpreting the venation of the stridulatory apparatus in crickets

“…The oldest fossil record of crickets consists mostly in isolated wings (e.g. Sharov 1968; Gorochov 1995a, b), although some exceptionally complete specimens have been described these last twenty years in amber (Perrichot et al 2002; Xu et al 2020a, b; Jiang et al 2022; Xu et al 2022; Yuan et al 2022; Desutter-Grandcolas et al 2023). Improving our understanding of the forewing venation of crickets s.l.…”