This list of 2023 in paleoentomology records new fossil insect taxa that are to be described during the year, as well as documents significant paleoentomology discoveries and events which occurred during that year.

Clade Amphiesmenoptera

Lepidopterans

Lepidopteran research

• Heikkilä et al. (2023) revise purported bombycoid fossil record, reporting that the earliest fossil material that can be assigned to the superfamily with certainty dates to the middle Miocene, while the majority of purported fossil bombycoids lack definitive bombycoid characters.

Trichopterans

Trichopteran research

• Baranov et al. (2023) describe leptocerid and lepidostomatid larvae from the Eocene Baltic amber, two of which still bear their cases, and interpret this finding as indicating that at least some aquatic larvae from Baltic amber were trapped in resin flows within the water bodies.

Other amphiesmenopterans

Clade Antliophora

Dipterans

Brachycerans

Nematocerans

Dipteran research

• New fossil material of stratiomyomorphan larvae from the Cretaceous Myanmar amber is reported by Amaral et al. (2023), who interpret the studied fossils as indicating that members of Stratiomyomorpha were not rare, but in fact were common in the Myanmar amber.
• Fossil material of a member of the genus Bibio, representing the oldest record of the genus reported to date, is described from the Paleocene Menat Basin (France) by Nel & Kundura (2023).

Mecopterans

Clade Archaeorthoptera

Orthopterans

Orthopteran research

• Woodrow, Celiker & Montealegre-Z (2023) study the anatomy of ears and forewings of a specimen of Eomortoniellus handlirschi from the Eocene Baltic amber, estimate the calling song frequency in E. handlirschi, interpret its ear as tuned to the male song frequency but also capable of hearing higher-frequency sounds, and consider this to be possible adaptation to eavesdropping on bat echolocating calls.

Other panorthopterans

Clade Coleopterida

Coleopterans

Adephaga

Archostemata

Myxophaga

Polyphaga

Bostrichiformia

Cucujiformia

Elateriformia

Scarabaeiformia

Staphyliniformia

Coleopteran research

• Evidence from feathers and larval molts preserved in the Albian amber from the San Just, El Soplao and Peñacerrada I outcrops (Spain), indicating that Cretaceous beetle larvae fed on feathers of avian or nonavian theropods, is presented by Peñalver et al. (2023).
• Li et al. (2023) interpret Notocupes as a close relative of the family Cupedidae rather than an ommatid.
• Alleged specimen of the extant species Tetracha carolina reported from the Eocene Baltic amber (Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia) by Horn (1906) is reinterpreted as a specimen of Palaeoiresina cassolai by Schmidt et al. (2023).
• The first known close relative of the Neotropical genus Eohomopterus from the Old World is reported from the Eocene Rovno amber (Ukraine) by Kirichenko-Babko & Perkovsky (2023).
• Possible haliplid larvae are described from the Cretaceous amber from Myanmar by Linhart et al. (2023).
• Jenkins Shaw, Solodovnikov & Perkovsky (2023) report the discovery of a member of the genus Trichophya (related to the extant species Trichophya antennalis and distinct from Trichophya minor from the amber from Myanmar) from the Upper Cretaceous Taimyr amber from Yantardakh (Russia), documenting the existence of two morphologically different species groups of Trichophya in the Cretaceous.
• The first fossil of a member of the genus Proteinus reported to date is described from the Eocene Baltic amber from Denmark by Jenkins Shaw, Bai & Solodovnikov (2023).
• Cifuentes-Ruiz et al. (2023) describe an indeterminate ptinid specimen representing the first biological inclusion the Cenomanian amber from the Dexter Member of the Woodbine Group (Texas, United States) reported to date.
• Zippel et al. (2023) describe cucujiform (possibly endomychid) larvae from the Cretaceous Burmese amber and Miocene Mexican amber, interpreted as possible fungus-eaters on rotting wood.

Clade Dictyoptera

Hymenopterans

"Symphyta"

Apocrita

Apoidea

Apoid research

• A study on the evolutionary history of bees, inferred from the fossil record and genomic data, is published by Almeida et al. (2023).

Chalcidoidea

Chrysidoidea

Diaprioidea

Evanioidea

Formicoidea

Formicoidea research

• A study on the ecology of haidomyrmecine ants is published by Sosiak et al. (2023), who interpret the studied ants as primarily leaf litter or ground-nesting and foraging predators, find support for specialized predation in several haidomyrmecine genera, and argue that the extinction of haidomyrmecines may have resulted in a vacant ecospace that was subsequently filled by members of modern ant lineages with trap-jaw like morphology and behavior.
• Archibald, Mathewes, & Aase (2023) document two additional fossils of Titanomyrma species ant queens from the Green River Formation and a single queen from the Eocene Okanagan Highlands Allenby Formation. They discuss the implications of the range extension for Formiciinae into the Ypresian temperate uplands, previously considered a thermophilic ant group, and the complication arising from preservational distortion during diagenesis.
• Zharkov & Dubovikoff (2023) report the first discovery of proventriculus in the fossil ants Oecophylla brischkei and Oecophylla crassinoda from the Eocene Baltic amber.

Ichneumonoidea

Platygastroidea

Pompiloidea

Proctotrupoidea

Stephanoidea

Vespoidea

Clade Neuropterida

Megalopterans

Neuropterans

Neuropteran research

• The oldest dustywing-type larva reported to date is described from the Cretaceous amber from Myanmar by Haug & Haug (2023).
• Mengel et al. (2023) describe new nevrorthid larvae from the Cretaceous amber from Myanmar and from the Eocene Baltic amber, and study on the morphological diversity of nevrorthid larvae, reporting the existence of fossil larvae with morphologies that are now extinct.
• New fossil material of long-nosed antlion larvae, mostly from the Cretaceous Myanmar amber (and two specimens from the Eocene Baltic amber), is described by Hassenbach et al. (2023), who interpret the studied fossils as confirming that the morphological diversity of Cretaceous silky lacewings was much higher than the diversity of their extant relatives.
• A study on the diversity of lacewing larvae with tooth-bearing mouthparts, based on data from new specimens from the Cretaceous Myanmar amber, is published by Braig et al. (2023), who interpret their findings as indicative of greater morphological diversity of the Cretaceous larvae than extant larvae, as well as indicative of convergent evolution resulting in partial reappearance of morphologies that went extinct after the Cretaceous.

Raphidiopterans

Clade †Palaeodictyopteroidea

†Megasecoptera

†Palaeodictyoptera

Clade Palaeoptera

Ephemeropterans

Ephemeropteran research

• A study on the diversity of mayflies throughout their evolutionary history is published by Sroka, Godunko & Prokop (2023), who interpret their findings as indicative of a major extinction of mayflies in the mid-Cretaceous which was likely connected to the rise of the flowering plants.

Odonatopterans

Odonatopteran research

• A study on trends in morphological diversity of Permian to Jurassic members of Odonata is published by Deregnaucourt et al. (2023), who report evidence of decreasing morphological diversity through time in spite of increasing species richness, as well evidence of significant changes in morphological diversity at the Permian-Triassic and Triassic-Jurassic transitions.
• Qi et al. (2023) describe new fossil material of Sinomesuropetala daohugensis from the Haifanggou Formation (China), providing new information on the forewing characters of this species and confirming its close relationship with Mesuropetala.

Other palaeopterans

Clade †Paoliidea

†Paoliida

Clade Paraneoptera

Hemipterans

Auchenorrhyncha

Coleorrhyncha

Heteroptera

Sternorrhyncha

Hemipteran research

• Fossil material of a member of the genus Aphelocheirus, representing the oldest record of the family Aphelocheiridae reported to date, is described from the Lower Eocene Palana Formation (Rajasthan, India) by Patel et al. (2023).
• New fossil material of the archijassid species Kisa fasciata is described from the Jurassic Yangshuzhuang and Yan'an formations (China) by Fu et al. (2023), expanding known distribution of Archijassidae in Eurasia and providing evidence of a considerable intraspecific variation of K. fasciata.

Psocodea

Thysanoptera

Clade Perlidea

Dermapterans

Dermapteran research

• Evidence from new immature earwig specimens from the Cretaceous amber from Myanmar, interpreted as indicative of reduction of morphological diversity of grasping apparatuses of earwigs over the past 100 million years, is presented by Haug et al. (2023).

Embiopterans

Phasmatodeans

Plecopterans

Other insects

• Khramov, Foraponova & Węgierek (2023) describe specimens of Tillyardembia from the Permian locality Chekarda (Perm Krai, Russia) preserved with pollen on their heads, thoraces, legs and abdomens, representing the oldest record of pollen-bearing insects reported to date.
• Haug et al. (2023) describe a holometabolan larva (probably a new specimen of ?Partisaniferus edjarzembowskii) from the Cretaceous Burmese amber, preserved with the mouthparts forming a beak and with a large and inflated trunk, and interpret the studied larva as physogastric and possibly living in confined spaces inside wood.

General research

• A study on the taxonomic diversity of insects throughout the Permian and Triassic, providing evidence of more than one extinction events accompanied by significant diversity drop and faunal turnovers, is published by Gui, Liu & Tian (2023).
• Solórzano‑Kraemer et al. (2023) report the preservation of phorid flies (but not fly larvae) associated with the holotype of Oculudentavis naga from the Cretaceous Myanmar amber, and interpret this finding as preserving early stage of scavenging by flies; the authors also note that there is not evidence of scavenging by ants from the Myanmar amber, and interpret it as suggesting that the Cretaceous ants did not yet have a foraging strategy to search for vertebrate corpses and to eat carrion.
• Review of anti-predator strategies of holometabolan larvae from the Cretaceous ambert from Myanmar is published by Haug et al. (2023), who find evidence of repeated independent evolution of strategies employed by extant insects, and report the discovery of a new leaf-mining hymenopteran caterpillar and a hangingfly caterpillar with extensive spines.
• An assemblage of chironomid (referrable to extant subfamilies), mayfly and lepidopteran fossils, closer in composition to Cenozoic insect assemblages than to Mesozoic ones, is described from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Chorrillo Formation (Argentina) by Vera et al. (2023).
• A diverse insect assemblage, including representatives of the orders Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera and Hemiptera, is described from the Miocene shales from Wang Kaew in the Mae Sot basin (Thailand) by Warapeang et al. (2023).
• Evidence from thermal maturation experiments on extant beetles, interpreted as indicating that colour patterns preserved in fossil insect specimens can be plausibly explained as biological in origin and represent melanin-based color patterns, is presented by Wang et al. (2023).

References