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A new family of insects is described from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation in western Liaoning Province, China. Dehiscensicoridae Du, Yao & Ren fam. nov. comprises five new genera and five new species:Dehiscensicoris sanctusDu, Yao & Ren gen. et sp. nov.,Pingquanicoris punctatusDu, Yao & Ren gen. et sp. nov.,Changirostrus maculatusDu, Yao & Ren gen. et sp. nov.,Crassiantenninus minutusDu, Yao & Ren gen. et sp. nov. andMinuticoris brunneusDu, Yao & Ren gen. et sp. nov. A cladistic analysis based on a combination of fossil and extant morphological characters is used to hypothesize the phylogenetic status of the new family, allowing the reconstruction of the interfamily relationships within the Coreoidea (sensu lato) which were found to be: Pyrrhocoroidea + (Dehiscensicoridae fam. nov. + (Coreoidea + (Idiostoloidea + Lygaeoidea))). http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E501B670-AF36-408C-8B9D-466B330BA775 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Choristopsychidae, established by Martynov in 1937 with a single isolated forewing, is a little known extinct family in Mecoptera. Since then, no new members of this enigmatic family have been described. Based on 23 well-preserved specimens with complete body and wings from the Middle Jurassic of northeastern China, we report one new genus and three new species of Choristopsychidae, two new species of the genus Choristopsyche Martynov, 1937: C. perfecta sp. n. and C. asticta sp. n.; one new species of Paristopsyche gen. n.: P. angelineae sp. n.; and re-describe C. tenuinervis Martynov, 1937. In addition, we emend the diagnoses of Choristopsychidae and Choristopsyche. Analyzing the forewing length/width ratios of representative species in Mecoptera, we confirm that choristopsychids have the lowest ratio of forewing length/width, meaning broadest forewings. These findings, the first fossil choristopsychids with wellpreserved body structure and the first record of Choristopsychidae in China, shed light on the morphology of these taxa and broaden their distribution from Tajikistan to China, while increasing the diversity of Mesozoic Mecoptera in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prophaenognatha robusta gen. et sp. nov. (Scarabaeoidea: Scarabaeidae: Aclopinae), the best-preserved aclopine fossil so far, is described and illustrated from the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of the Jehol Biota, western Liaoning Province, NE China. The key to extinct and extant genera of Aclopinae is given and the monophyly of extant and fossil Aclopinae lineages is supported by five character states. The new taxon provides evidence about the evolution of Scarabaeoidea with its phylogenetic position inferred based on 68 morphological characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A new genus Sinomodus gen. nov. with three new species of Vitimotauliidae are described and illustrated from Jehol Biota, the Yixian Formation in western Liaoning Province, northeastern China. Based on these well-preserved specimens, diagnosis of this family is revised, key to genera of Vitimotauliidae and key to species of Sinomodus gen. nov. are given. The age of Sinomodus gen. nov. and the distribution of Family Vitimotauliidae are proposed. The variability of the wing venation of this family is discussed for the first time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Insect-mediated damage was examined on 756 specimens of three broadleaved conifers Podozamites , Lindleycladus and Liaoningocladus , originating from five mid-Mesozoic localities in Northeastern China. These localities are the Late Triassic Yangcaogou Fm. (T3, ca. 205 Ma), the latest Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Fm. (J2, 165 Ma), and the mid Early Cretaceous Yixian Fm. (K1, 125 Ma). Plant hosts from these three time intervals harbor five functional feeding groups (FFGs) of herbivores and 23 distinctive damage types (DTs), categorized using the widely applied DT system. The DTs were classified into the five FFGs of external foliage feeding (6 DTs), piercing and sucking (5 DTs), oviposition (3 DTs), galling (8 DTs) and leaf mining (1 DT). Damage-type richness and abundance was established for each FFG, encompassing from 10 to 16 DTs for each of the three time intervals examined. For this 80 million-year-long interval, foliar herbivory on broadleaved conifers was transformed from early predominance of external foliage feeding (T3), later replaced by an emphasis on piercing and sucking (J2), followed by bimodal expansion of endophytic interactions from oviposition and leaf mining (K1). This trajectory of herbivore succession indicates that, from T3 to K1, plant–insect associations were transformed from earlier reliance on a greater number of exophytic modes of herbivory to a later, increased variety in endophytic consumption. The transformation also was demonstrated by finer-grained partitioning of food resources and specialization on particular host-plant tissue types. This subdivision of tissue types likely promoted greater dietary saturation of tissue space by functional feeding groups. Possible explanations for these shifts in herbivory include ecological causes, long-term environmental changes, or both. Ecological factors, such as (i), evolution of a more differentiated plant-host spectrum available for consumption; (ii), long-term changes in plant physiognomy and deployment of antiherbivore defenses; (iii), change in herbivore partitioning of plant-host tissues; and (iv), emergence of the parasitoid guild for efficient regulation of insect herbivores. Long-term environmental variables may be linked to these shifts in insect herbivory style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Blood-feeding insects, as vectors of disease for humans and livestock alike, have garnered significant interest [ 1, 2 ], but our understanding of their early evolution is hindered by the scarcity of available material and the difficulty in distinguishing early hematophages from non-blood-feeding relatives. Here, we report a new family of true bugs including two new genera and species from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation in Northeastern China. By utilizing geochemical methods for determining their diets and combining morphological and taphonomic data, we demonstrate that these new species represent the earliest evidence of blood feeding among true bugs, extending the geological record of such lineages by approximately 30 million years. Remarkably, one of the bugs appears to have perished immediately following a blood meal, which may have been from coexisting mammals, birds, or avian-related dinosaurs. These records expand the phylogenetic and ecological diversity of blood-feeding insects in the Early Cretaceous, enriching our knowledge of paleoecological associations in these ancient environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]