Mirivena Yao, Cai & Ren

Yao, Yunzhi, Cai, Wanzhi & Ren, Dong, 2007, The oldest known fossil plant bug (Hemiptera: Miridae), from Middle Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China, Zootaxa 1442, pp. 37-41 : 38

Mirivena Yao, Cai & Ren , gen. nov.

Type species. Mirivena robusta Yao, Cai & Ren , sp. nov.

Diagnosis. Body relatively large, elongate-oval, moderately robust; head short, wider than long, anteocular portion longer than postocular; antennae inserted laterally immediately in front of eyes, first segment short, not reaching apex of head; eyes large, prominent, widely separated from anterior margin of pronotum; pronotum more than 2 times as wide as long, without collar; scutellum equilaterally triangular; hemelytron well developed, extending beyond tip of abdomen, clavus large, claval commissure shorter than scutellum length, only two veins on corium, R vein reaching anterior margin of fore wing, cuneus conspicuous, triangular, nearly as long as scutellum; abdomen oval, connexivum visible, second abdominal sternum narrowed, third to eighth sterna subequal in width.

Remarks. The classification and phylogenetic study of the living species of Miridae depend on microscopic features like the structure of pretarsus and genitalia. Based on those features, it is difficult to assign this new genus to any subfamily with complete certainty. Mirivena gen. nov. differs from all living genera in its R vein reaching the anterior margin of the fore wing.

Among all known fossils of Miridae , the new species is the largest. It is closely related to Miridoides Becker-Migdisova 1963 from the Late Jurassic of Kazakhstan, but differs in the following characters: body length 10.9 mm (vs. only 5.1 mm), head 1.4 times as wide as long (vs. 3 times), eyes widely separated from anterior margin of pronotum (vs. eyes contiguous to anterior margin of pronotum), and corium without CuP, R vein reaching anterior margin of fore wing (vs. corium with CuP, R short, straight, not reaching the anterior margin of the fore wing).

Etymology. The generic name is a combination of the Latin mir (“preternatural”) and vena (“vein”).