''Electrotettix'' is an extinct genus of pygmy locust found in

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In Ma ...

collected in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

. Represented by a single species, ''Electrotettix attenboroughi'', which lived 18-20 million years ago, it fed primarily on moss, fungi, and algae. The genus name is derived from ''

electrum Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, with trace amounts of copper and other metals. Its color ranges from pale to bright yellow, depending on the proportions of gold and silver. It has been produced artificially, and ...

'',

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for "amber", and Greek '' tettix'', meaning "grasshopper". The species was named after Sir

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

. The female measures 8 millimeters in length: the male is unknown. The species is distinguished from modern members of the

Cladonotinae Cladonotinae is a subfamily of groundhoppers (Orthoptera: Caelifera) containing more than 70 genera and 260 described species. These insects are found in tropical areas world-wide. Tribes and Genera The following genera, in four tribes, belon ...

subfamily by the fact that it retains vestigial wings, a feature lost somewhere between the ancient specimens and more modern species. ''E. attenboroughi'' was identified from a collection of amber at the

Illinois Natural History Survey The Illinois Natural History Survey (abbreviated as INHS), located on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, is an active research institution with over 200 staff members, and it maintains one of the ...

, which had been stored in a cabinet under a sink since it was collected in the 1950s by entomologist Milton Sanderson.

References

Prehistoric insect genera Caelifera genera Insects of the Dominican Republic Miocene insects Fossil taxa described in 2014 Fossils of the Dominican Republic David Attenborough {{tetrigidae-stub

See also

References