Planthoppers (Insecta: Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Fulgoroidea: Surijokocixiidae) of the Queensland Triassic

Abstract

The suborder Fulgoromorpha, highly diverse and speciose today, was a minor component of the Cicadomorpha-dominant hemipteran fauna of the Queensland Triassic known only from five tegmen specimens of three species in three genera of the extinct family Surijokocixiidae: Tricrosbia minuta Evans, 1971, and Crosbixius carsburgi gen. et sp. nov., from the Late Triassic (Norian) Mount Crosby Formation of the Ipswich Coal Measures, and Karesmina punicea gen. et sp. nov. from the Middle Triassic (Anisian) Esk Formation. The Surijokocixiidae are otherwise known from four Permian genera from Russia and unnamed Triassic species from Kyrgyzstan and China. Tricrosbia Evans, 1971, is distinguished from other genera of the family by its simple MP1+2, and the very shallow fork of CuA. Crosbixius is similar to the Permian Surijokocixius Becker-Migdisova, but differs in the costal space of equal width along its entire length, the more basal fork of ScP+RA and RP, and mp-cu running between MP and CuA1 rather than MP3+4 and CuA1. Karesmina is distinguished by its larger size (tegmen length 9 mm, < 6 mm in the others), backwardly inclined ir, and peculiar structure of RP and MP1+2. Tricrosbia and Crosbixius were the last of the Surijokocixiidae which were extinct by the end of the Triassic, succeeded in the Jurassic by a more diverse and modern looking fulgoromorph fauna, dominated by numerous species of the extinct Fulgoridiidae. Confirmation of the presence of the Surijokocixiidae in the Mount Crosby Formation adds another family to the Ipswich Coal Measures hemipteran fauna, a transition insect fauna typical of the Triassic, with a mix of survivors from the Permian which did not last beyond the Triassic (Dunstaniidae, Scytinopteridae, Surijokocixiidae) or Jurassic (Dysmorphoptilidae), peculiar Triassic endemics (Chiliocyclidae, Mesogereonidae, Ipsviciidae), the newly emerged Hylicellidae which survived until the Cretaceous, and lastly more modern forms, Archijassidae, the earliest record of the extant Membracoidea, and Tettigarctidae, the hairy cicadas, which still exist today.  Insecta, Hemiptera, Fulgoromorpha, Fulgoroidea, Surijokocixiidae, Tricrosbia, Mount Crosby Formation, Esk Formation, fossil insects.