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Megeremaeus cretaceous new species (Acari: Oribatida), the first oribatid mite from Canadian amber

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2017

Ekaterina A. Sidorchuk Open the ORCID record for Ekaterina A. Sidorchuk [Opens in a new window]  and
Valerie M. Behan-Pelletier
Ekaterina A. Sidorchuk*
Affiliation:
Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya ulitsa 123, 117997 Moscow, Russia
Valerie M. Behan-Pelletier
Affiliation:
Invertebrate Biodiversity Program, Research Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, K. W. Neatby Bldg., Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0C6, Canada
*
1Corresponding author (e-mail: e.a.sidorchuk@gmail.com).
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Abstract

Canadian Cretaceous amber belongs to the Taber Coal Zone, and was deposited in beds of coal and shale saturated with organic matter. It is upper Campanian (~76–72 million years ago), and the source of the original resin is predominantly the plant genus Parataxodium Arnold and Lowther (Cupressaceae). We describe the first oribatid mite from this amber, Megeremaeus cretaceousnew species (Acari: Oribatida: Megeremaeidae). We provide a key to all described species of Megeremaeus Higgins and Woolley, 1965, and discuss the advantages that confocal microscopy provides for the study of dark, resin-filled, miniature amber inclusions.

Type
Systematics & Morphology
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 149 , Issue 3 , June 2017 , pp. 277 - 290
Copyright
© Entomological Society of Canada 2017 

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