A NEW FOSSIL SCALE INSECT 
(HOMOPTERA: COCCOIDEA) 
FROM CANADIAN AMBER 
By John W. Beardsley 
University of Hawaii, Honolulu 1 * 2 
Oligocene and Miocene ambers from the Baltic area and from 
Mexico have yielded more than ioo known specimens of fossil Coc- 
coidea. However, insofar as they can be identified, these all appear 
to belong to extant genera. The only previously described Mesozoic 
coccid fossil, Mesococcus asiatica Becker-Migdisova (1959), is an 
impression, said to represent a wingless female or nymph, from an 
Upper Triassic deposit at Issik-Kul, Kirghiz, SSR, Soviet Union. 
From the published description and figure of that specimen, its as- 
signment to the Coccoidea. seems to be based upon rather inconclusive 
evidence as important structures, such as the antennae and mouth- 
parts, are not preserved. 
The specimen described here is preserved in amber from Cedar 
Lake, Manitoba. This amber is almost certainly of Upper Cretaceous 
age (Carpenter, et al , 1937; Richards, 1966). 3 The specimen is 
unquestionably an adult male coccid, and is in a relatively good 
state of preservation. The body and its appendages appear to be 
almost entirely intact, and the specimen is not obscured by any large 
external air bubbles, as in some Baltic amber coccids which I have 
examined. Parts of the specimen are somewhat distorted due to 
shriveling of the membranous portions of the integument. The venter 
of the head apparently is split or torn behind the ventromedial plate, 
and flap-like shreds of membranous integument extend beneath the 
head in this region. A pronounced flaw plane roughly perpendicular 
to the insect’s body, intersects the specimen on the posterior part of 
dorsum of the thorax and partially obscures certain morphological 
details in that region. The entire venter of the insect is unobstructed, 
however. The left forewing extends posteriously at a slight angle 
to the body, and most of the details of the wing are clearly discern- 
Tublished with the approval of the Director of the Hawaii Agricultural 
Experiment Station as Journal Series No. 1116. 
Manuscript received by the editor June 2, 1969. 
This research was supported in part by National Science Grant GB-4289 ; 
Spencer W. Brown, Principal Investigator. 
3 I wish to thank Dr. F. M. Carpenter, Harvard University, for providing 
the opportunity to study this fossil coccid. 
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