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19 December 2011 Fossil Thrips of the Family Uzelothripidae Suggest 53 Million Years of Morphological and Ecological Stability
Patricia Nel, Alexander R. Schmidt, Claus Bässler, André Nel
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Abstract

The new fossil thrips Uzelothrips eocenicus P. Nel and A. Nel sp. nov. (Thysanoptera: Uzelothripidae) is described from two lowermost Eocene amber-preserved specimens (one macropterous and one apterous). The family Uzelothripidae is only known so far from a single extant species, Uzelothrips scabrosus. The fossils differ from the extant species only by the antennal segments III and IV, which appear distinctly separated instead of being fused as in the in the extant U. scabrosus. Dark-coloured hyphae and conidia of the Dothideomycetes (Ascomycota) which are likely to belong to the sooty moulds (Capnodiales) are attached to the apterous fossil specimen. We consider this arthropod-fungus association not to be accidental since these fungi are also found in extant specimens of these uzelothripids, suggesting very specific long-term interactions and strong habitat specificity.

© 2013 P. Nel et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Patricia Nel, Alexander R. Schmidt, Claus Bässler, and André Nel "Fossil Thrips of the Family Uzelothripidae Suggest 53 Million Years of Morphological and Ecological Stability," Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 58(3), 609-614, (19 December 2011). https://doi.org/10.4202/app.2011.0016
Received: 16 February 2011; Accepted: 1 December 2011; Published: 19 December 2011
KEYWORDS
amber
Arthropoda
Ascomycota
Capnodiales
Eocene
fossil fungi
France
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