A primitive triatomine bug, Paleotriatoma metaxytaxa gen. et sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae), in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar

The present study describes a primitive kissing bug (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar. The fossil, which is described as Paleotriatoma metaxytaxa gen. et sp. nov., contains a predominance of features of the Triatominae as well as some characters of the Reduviinae and is considered an intermediate fossil representing an early progenitor of the Triatominae. Based on the present distribution of the Triatominae and recent studies indicating that Burmese amber fossils could have originated in Gondwana, it is proposed that Paleotriatoma metaxytaxa is a Gondwanan lineage that evolved in the mid-Cretaceous. The specimen contains developing trypanosome flagellates in its hindgut, suggesting that early triatomines could have been vectoring pathogenic protozoa to vertebrates some 100 Ma.