Vol. 1 No. 4 (2020): Biosis: Biological Systems

The Pliocene era could be the last time when sandfly (Diptera: Psychodidae) species were widespread in Europe. Within the Pliocene, the mid-Pliocene period is an important model period in the investigation of the future effects of anthropogenic climate change. In this study, the mid-Pliocene potential distribution of six Mediterranean sandfly species was modelled based on the M2 mid-Pliocene cold and mid-Pliocene warm paleoclimatic reconstructions. It was found that the cold period’s potential occurrence of sandfly species could be notably more extended than the distribution of the taxa in the warm period. The difference is less expressed in the case of the West Mediterranean species, but it is particularly visible in the circum-Mediterranean and East Mediterranean taxa. It can be concluded that not the changes in the mean annual temperature, but the increase of the precipitation patterns and the wetter climate of the mid-Pliocene warm period resulted in the observed differences. The results imply that the use of mid-Pliocene warming as a model of the present climatic changes can be handled with caution in the performing of biogeographic proxies for vector sandflies related to the anthropogenic climate change.

The present paper describes a new species of encyrtid wasp, Hambletonia dominicana sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) from Dominican amber. Diagnostic characters include long antennae that are almost twice the length of the head, the absence of long, coarse, flattened setae on the dorsal apical margin of the pedicel, and an elliptical club subequal in length to that of the funicle. This first described fossil species of Hambletonia provides views of new and possible unique morphological features of encyrtid wasps that existed in the Neotropics during the mid-Tertiary.

A new species of spiroplasmid, Spiroplasma burmanica sp. nov. (Mollicutes: Entomoplasmatales: Spiroplasmataceae) is described from the body cavity of a fossil plant louse (Psylloidea: Sternorrhyncha) in Burmese amber.  The new species is pleomorphic with body shapes varying from oval to helical.  The majority of the helical cells occur in the head, thorax (including leg cavities) and abdomen of the fossil psyllid.   The association between S. burmanica and the psyllid is considered to be a case of symbiosis, similar to extant relationships.  This discovery of the first fossil spiroplasmid shows that psyllids carried these microorganisms some 100 million years ago.

A bizarre cylindrical bark beetle from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber is described as Stegastochlidus saraemcheana, a new genus and species in the subfamily Colydiinae of the family Zopheridae. The male beetle is characterized by elongate protuberances covering its entire dorsal surface, a tarsal formula of 4-4-4 and ten-segmented antennae with the terminal segment expanded into a small club. The fossil is considered to have been a possible predator that lived among moss, lichens and fungi either attached to trees trunks or on the forest floor. A close association with fungi is indicated by strands of conidia attached to the cuticle of the beetle.