Normarkicoccus cambayae, Vea & Grimaldi, 2015

Vea, Isabelle M. & Grimaldi, David A., 2015, Diverse new scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) in amber from the Cretaceous and Eocene with a phylogenetic framework for fossil Coccoidea, American Museum Novitates 2015 (3823), pp. 1-80 : 59

Normarkicoccus cambayae , new species

Figures 21C , 23

TYPE LOCALITY: Early Eocene, India, Gujarat, western India: Tadkeshwar lignite mines .

TYPE: Holotype Tad-135, alate male in a 4 × 5 × 0.5 mm dark orange, polished amber piece, specimen in relatively good condition but with thoracic structures damaged, wings spread backward and touching together, body tilted in amber; accessible views: partial ventral and dorsal. India: Gujarat, western India: Cambay Shale Formation, Tadkeshwar lignite mines, coll. D. Grimaldi, P.C. Nascimbene, and H. Singh., deposited in the Birbal Sahni Institute for Palaeobotany, Lucknow, India.

ETYMOLOGY: The species epithet comes from Cambay, the geological basin from which the amber was excavated.

DIAGNOSIS: As for genus.

DESCRIPTION: Body minute, spindle shaped, total length 365 μm, widest at mesothorax (ca. 200 μm). Head (fig. 23AB): Fused to thorax, ca. 80 μm wide. Ocular sclerites with two pairs of simple eyes each. Dorsal eyes on anterior margin of head, ventral eyes, meeting ventrally; with two lateral ocelli (10 μm). Head dorsally with a median crest, cuticle reticulate, bearing a few hairlike setae. Ventral ridges not observable. Antenna: 10-segmented, cuticle of pedicel reticulate, total length 225–250 μm; antennomere lengths (in μm) scape 16; pedicel 25, both scale and pedicel with short hairlike setae; flagellar segments III to X all filiform; III 25–30; IV 20–25; V 30; VI 25–30; VII 25–30; VIII 25–30; IX 25; X 15–20. Flagellomeres each with thick setae, probably fleshy but undifferentiated, ca. 15 μm long. Apical segment with 2 longer and thinner setae; 1 long, apical seta, apparently not capitate. Thorax: Prothorax membranous, cuticular ridges not visible. Thoracic structure not clearly visible, but dorsally, mesopostnotum long; ventrally, with a short basisternum. Wings: Forewings of neococcoid type, narrow base and apex rounded, ca. 420 μm long, 100 μm wide, symmetrical on midlongitudinal axis; subcostal ridge extending from base of the wing to more than 3/4 of wing length. Cubital ridge present, originating in basal quarter of wing, alar setae and sensoria absent, microtrichia present on wing membrane. Alar lobe present, receiving hooks of hamuli. Hamulohaltere narrow, ca. 40 μm long; with one hamulus. Legs (fig. 23C): Robust, all of subequal length, cuticular reticulations absent. Foreleg: coxa ca. 30 μm long; trochanter and femur 70–80 μm long, 17 μm wide, with few short hairlike setae (ca. 15 μm long); tibia 155 μm long, proximally narrow (7 μm wide), distally twice the basal width, with a few hairlike setae, more numerous and spinose distally (tibial spurs); tarsus 2-segmented, 35–40 μm long, 10 μm wide; tarsal digitules slightly clavate, shorter than claw; claw thin, 10 μm long, almost uncurved, claw digitules slightly clavate, reaching tip of claw, claw denticle absent. Abdomen: Relatively short and wide, ca. 172 μm long (but specimen tilted, 125 μm long without genital segment), 95 μm widest. Abdominal setae not visible except for pleural setae on last segments. Genital segment (fig. 23D): Penial sheath subtriangular (87 μm long, 45 μm at base), covered with a layer of thin bubbles. Aedeagus pointed at apex, short, ca. 65 μm long. Eversible endophallus absent.

Figures

FIGURE 21. Photomicrographs of (A) dorsal and (B) ventral surfaces of Rosahendersonia prisca, n. sp., holotype AMNH Bu-835. (C) Dorsal surface of Normarkicoccus cambayae, n. sp., holotype AMNH Tad-135.

FIGURE 23. Details of Normarkicoccus cambayae, n. sp. (A) Dorsal view of head. (B) Ventral view of head. (C) Leg. (D) Ventral view of penial sheath.