162 
Psyche 
[Vol. 95 
some of the fossil species resemble modern drepanosiphids living on 
Acer and other angiosperms (Heie, 1967). Recent Lizerini feed on 
various families of angiosperms, including Combretaceae, Laura- 
ceae, Nyctaginaceae and Burseraceae. Remains of angiosperm 
families which have been found in Dominican amber include rep- 
resentatives of the Leguminosae, Meliaceae, Myristiaceae, Acti- 
nidiaceae, Bombaceae and Hippocrateaceae (Poinar, unpublished 
data). The amber-producing plant, Hymenaea, need not be the host 
of the aphid since the latter is winged and could have flown or been 
blown into the resin. 
The climate of the locality in the Miocene-Eocene period was 
tropical, warmer than the regions where Mindarus spp. occur today, 
but much like the climate where species of Lizerius and Paoliella live. 
It is interesting that the present distribution of Lizerius is Neotrop- 
ical, since the continuous tropical climate may be the reason why 
Mindazerius and most other groups of fossils in Dominican amber 
still have relatives in South America today. 
The geographical distribution of Lizerius (South America) and 
Paoliella (Africa, India and South America) suggests that Lizerini 
originated in the southern hemisphere in the Late Mesozoic, when 
the Atlantic Ocean did not represent an obstacle to dispersal. The 
occurrence of a fossil relative in Dominican amber does not invali- 
date this idea. 
Affinities 
The oldest known fossil aphid with a similar wing venation to 
Mindazerius is Nordaphis sukatchevae Kononova from the Cre- 
taceous Taymyrian amber in the USSR. Kononova (1977) placed it 
in Lizerini, but her drawing suggests that it could also belong in the 
Mindaridae (Heie 1987). With Mindazerius, which is more similar 
to Lizerius than to Mindarus, Nordaphis could well be a relative of 
Lizerius and of Mindarus. Nordaphis may be a specialized represen- 
tative (with an extremely long rostrum) of a group related to the 
ancestor of Lizerini or the ancestor of both Drepanosiphidae and 
Mindaridae. 
If Mindazerius dominicanus had had the fore legs, the siphunculi 
and the long cauda missing — then it probably would have been 
placed in the Mindaridae. All Tertiary aphids with that kind of wing 
