A thorny, 'anareolate' stick-insect (Phasmatidae s.l.) in Upper Cretaceous amber from Myanmar, with remarks on diversification times among Phasmatodea

Abstract

A new fossil stick-insect (Phasmatodea) is described and figured from a male preserved in Cretaceous amber from Myanmar. Echinosomiscus primoticus Engel and Wang, gen. et sp. nov., is a robust, somewhat-compressed stick-insect bearing abundant acanthae over the head and body, and remarkably lacks an area apicalis on the tibiae. The species is described and assigned to a new, extinct subfamily of Phasmatidae s.l., as Echinosomiscinae Engel, subfam. nov. Brief remarks are made regarding the dating of phasmatodean lineages, with E. primoticus providing the first reliable evidence for Euphasmatodea and even Neophasmatodea in the Cenomanian.