Overview of the caddisflies (Insecta, Trichoptera) in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber

The study of caddisflies in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber is still in its infancy, it being too early to get more than a preliminary overview of the Trichoptera fauna. With description here of two new and significant taxa, Cretacoptila botosaneanui gen. et sp. nov. and Electrocentropus dilucidus gen. et sp. nov. a total of 34 named species are listed, distributed among 10 families. Several taxonomic changes are made: two established species are transferred to more-appropriate genera, becoming Neucentropus macularis (Wang et al., 2019) comb. nov. and Myanpsyche malaisei (Wichard & Wang, 2019) comb. nov.; a new extinct subfamily dagger Burminoptilinae subfamily nov. is proposed in the family Hydroptilidae and two extinct families, dagger Burmapsychidae fam. nov. and dagger Cretapsychidae fam. nov., are proposed for the superfamily Sericostomatoidea. The small size of adults of many of these species is remarkable. With their 2-4 mm length forewings they are smaller than their next relatives in the Baltic Amber and even much smaller than their present representatives. Thus, not only are the hydroptilids microcaddisflies, but also philopotamids of the genus Wormaldia and psychomyiids of the extinct genus Palerasnitsynus, which, being the most common caddisflies in Burmese amber, apparently tended to swarm. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study of caddisflies in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber is still at an early stage, with 34 named species identified so far, including two new taxa. Taxonomic changes have been made, revealing the remarkable small size of these ancient insects.