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| three Cretaceous coreids with elaborate antennae. Dorsal habitus scaled to same uniform length to highlight the antennae to body ratios. Colorations are artistic recreations based upon extant coreids rather than the actual specimen, whose color was not preserved in the amber A Ferriantenna excalibur gen. et sp. nov. B Ferriantenna “club-like antennae” C Magnusantenna wuae. Ferriantenna excalibur Cumming & Le Tirant, 2021 Illustrations by Liz Sisk |
Abstract
A new genus and species of exaggerated antennae Coreidae is described from Myanmar amber of the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian stage). Ferriantenna excalibur gen. et sp. nov. appears related to another Cretaceous coreid with exaggerated antennae, Magnusantenna Du & Chen, 2021, but can be differentiated by the fourth antennal segment which is short and paddle-like, the undulating shape of the pronotum and mesonotum, and the shorter and thicker legs. The new coreid, with elaborately formed antennae and simple hind legs instead of the typical extant coreid morphology with simple antennae and elaborately formed hind legs, begs the question: why were the elaborate features of the antennae lost in favor of ornate hind legs? Features that are large and showy are at higher risk of being attacked by predators or stuck in a poor molt and subjected to autotomy and are therefore lost at a higher rate than simple appendages. We hypothesize that because elaborate antennae play an additional significant sensory role compared to elaborate hind legs, that evolutionarily it is more costly to have elaborate antennae versus elaborate hind legs. Thus, through the millenia, as coreid evolution experimented with elaborate/ornate features, those on the antennae were likely selected against in favor of ornate hind legs.
Keywords: Autotomy, Burmese, Cenomanian, Cretaceous, extinct, fossil, leaf-footed bugs, Mesozoic
Class Insecta Linnaeus, 1758
Order Hemiptera Linnaeus, 1758
Family Coreidae Leach, 1815
Subfamily Coreinae Leach, 1815
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| Artist recreation of the presently known three Cretaceous coreids with elaborate antennae. Illustrations by Liz Sisk (USA). Dorsal habitus scaled to same uniform length to highlight the antennae to body ratios. Colorations are artistic recreations based upon extant coreids rather than the actual specimen, whose color was not preserved in the amber A Ferriantenna excalibur gen. et sp. nov. B Ferriantenna “club-like antennae” C Magnusantenna wuae. |
Genus Ferriantenna gen. nov.
Etymology: The generic name is derived from Latin prefix ferri (meaning weapon) and Latin antenna (meaning yardarm of a ship/sail yard which was the origin of the “feeler or horn” of an insect; etymonline.com). This genus epithet is referring to the weapon-like appearance of the antennae of these insects (Fig. 2A, B). Gender is neuter.
Ferriantenna excalibur gen. et, sp. nov.
Etymology: Noun in apposition, given for Excalibur, the mythical “sword in the stone” which was first described in the epic poem Merlin (about the mythical advisor to King Arthur), written by the French poet Robert de Boron sometime between 1195–1210 (Reeve and Wright 2007) which was a reworking of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s “Historia Regum Britanniae”, completed c. 1138 (Wright 1985). Within this poem is the first mention of Excalibur being the sword in the stone, which could only be removed by the true king of England. We felt that this specific epithet was fitting as this group of insects with exaggerated antennae were first described as a possible “double edged sword in evolution” as these elaborate antennae went extinct (Du et al. 2021). We felt this witty description, coupled with the insect being trapped in stone (amber) was fitting for such a long lost, and therefore mythical species.
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| Ferriantenna excalibur gen. et sp. nov. holotype A dorsolateral habitus B left antennae lateral and head dorsal C amber specimen #BHM10200800678 showing the inclusion. |
Royce T. Cumming and Stephane Le Tirant. 2021. Drawing the Excalibur Bug from the Stone: Adding Credibility to the Double-edged Sword Hypothesis of coreid evolution (Hemiptera, Coreidae). ZooKeys. 1043: 117-131. DOI: doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1043.67730
