New paper!

Boderau M., Nel A. & Engel M. S: "The earliest chinch bug (Hemiptera, Blissidae): A new genus from mid-Cretaceous
Kachin amber"

The earliest known fossil of the chinch bug family Blissidae Stål, 1862 is described and figured from a macropterous male preserved in mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber of northern Myanmar. Prosthoblissus primigenius n. gen., n. sp. is noteworthy for the putatively plesiomorphic retention of open procoxal cavities, a character state shared with a swath of arguable early-diverging extant genera. It is distinguished from those genera based on a unique combination of plesiomorphic and apomorphic character states, as well as from Eoblissus gallicus Garrouste, Schubnel & Nel, 2019, the prior earliest fossil of the family. This occurrence extends the age of the family from the early Eocene to the middle Cretaceous, greatly revising available calibration points for crown-group Blissidae.

https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/sites/default/files/articles/pdf/zoosystema2025v47a9.pdf

Next True Bugs Tuesday!

Dear fellow heteropterists,
The next True Bug Tuesday seminar is on March 25th at 2PM Los Angeles, 5PM New York, 6PM Sao Paulo, 10PM Berlin, and 8AM (next day) in Sydney. Dr. Talita Roell will speak about Asopinae. The flyer and zoom info are below. Please feel free to forward to colleagues who are currently not IHS members.

Please reach out to one of us if you are interested in presenting later in 2025, we are always looking for volunteers!

This series of talks is free for IHS members and non-members and is meant to enhance communication among researchers and students interested in heteropteran systematics and biodiversity, attract new members to the IHS, and enhance inclusivity. We aim to maximize diversity and inclusivity of speakers and talks with respect to geography, ethnicity, gender, taxonomic group, and research questions and approaches.

Join Zoom Meeting https://ucr.zoom.us/j/91310823830?pwd=iotoX0Ejkk92aAeF5AiYtCiLzH8KD7.1

New paper!

Aiba H., Souma J.,Inose H.: "A new genus and species of Microphysidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) with long labium in Late Cretaceous Iwaki amber from Futaba Group of Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan"

The Iwaki insect-bearing amber from Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Honshu, Japan, is considered from the Late Cretaceous Coniacian age. The insect-bearing amber localities from that period are few worldwide. Here, we report Iwakia longilabiata gen. et sp. nov., a new fossil genus and species of the infraorder Cimicomorpha Leston, Pendergrast and Southwood, 1954 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from the Futaba Group of Iwaki City. Although the preservation is incomplete, this fossil is provisionally placed in the family Microphysidae Dohrn, 1859 based on the general consistency of the diagnostic characters of the family. The fossil is distinguishable from any genus of Cimicomorpha including Microphysidae because of its long labium and brachypterous female. Additionally, the fossil shares the female diagnostic characteristics of the Palaearctic and Nearctic taxa, suggesting that it is an early stage in the evolution of sexual dimorphism of the family Microphysidae. The evolution of sexual dimorphism in Microphysidae may have already occurred in East Asia during the Late Cretaceous Coniacian age. This fossil may be the first discovery from Asia and the oldest record of the family Microphysidae.

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/prpsj/29/0/29_240017/_article/-char/ja/