Marmyan
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''Marmyan'' is an extinct
genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of scale insect, containing a single species, ''Marmyan barbarae'' and unplaced in any coccid family. The genus is solely known from the
Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/ Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0 ...
Cenomanian
Burmese amber Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. The ...
deposits.


History and classification

''Marmyan'' is known from the
holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...
specimen, collection number BMNH In. 20160(1), which along several other insects of different orders, are
inclusion Inclusion or Include may refer to: Sociology * Social inclusion, aims to create an environment that supports equal opportunity for individuals and groups that form a society. ** Inclusion (disability rights), promotion of people with disabiliti ...
s in a transparent chunk of Burmese amber. As of 2004, the type insect was part of the amber collections housed at the
British Museum of Natural History The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum ...
,
London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
. The
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 ...
specimen was recovered from deposits exposed in the
Hukawng Valley The Hukawng Valley ( my, ဟူးကောင်းချိုင့်ဝှမ်း; also spelt Hukaung Valley) is an isolated valley in Myanmar, roughly in area. It is located in Tanaing Township in the Myitkyina District of Kachin State ...
of Kachin State, Myanmar. Burmese amber has been radiometrically dated using U- Pb isotopes, yielding an age of approximately 99 million years, close to the Aptian – Cenomanian boundary. The holotype was first studied by paleoentomologist and coccid researcher Jan Koteja, of the
Agricultural University of Kraków The Agricultural University of Kraków (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Rolniczy im. Hugona Kołłątaja w Krakowie''), located in Kraków, Poland, became a university by decree of the Council of Ministers as of 28 September 1972. Formerly, it was known as ...
. Kotejas's 2004
type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...
of the genus and species was published in the '' Journal of Systematic Palaeontology''. He coined the specific epithet ''barbarae'' to honor the Polish paleoentomologist and hempiteran researcher Barbara Ogaza, who started fossil coccid research in Poland. The genus name, ''Marmyan'', is an anagram created from the name "Myanmar", where the amber is found. ''Marmyan'' is one of three Burmese amber coccid genera that Koteja described in the same paper, the other two being '' Burmacoccus'' and '' Albicoccus'' placed into the monotypic families Burmacoccidae and Albicoccidae respectively. He placed ''Marmyan'' into the neococcid group of scale insects based on a combination of characters that indicate a relationship to the primitive families Putoidae, Pseudococcidae, Eriococcidae but not found in any one particular family. A
phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...
analysis of coccid males from a number of families was performed by Hodgson and Hardy in 2013. The extinct genera ''Albicoccus'', '' Apticoccus'', '' Grimaldiella'', '' Kukaspis'', ''Marmyan'', '' Palaeosteingelia'', '' Palaeotupo'', '' Solicoccus'', '' Turonicoccus'' and possibly '' Pennygullania'', all with simple rows of eyes, were found to form a clade that included ''Burmacoccus''. The clade also includes the modern families Putoidae, Steingeliidae and Pityococcidae plus the neococcoids clade as a group. A second phylogenetic review of coccids was performed by Vea and Grimaldi in 2015 and incorporated a number of new fossil taxa. In contrast to the work of Hodgson and Hardy, the 2015 analysis recovered ''Marmyan'' as a neoccoid genus sister to the family Eriococcidae, as was suggested by Koteja.


Description

The single described adult male is approximately long, with hyaline wings, but incomplete. The head and part of the thorax were lost when a hole was bored through the amber for threading onto a string. Koteja assumed the head would have borne reduced eye structuring as other primitive neococcids. The antennae are composed of ten segments, with the
pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...
being the similar in length to surrounding segments which are nodose in shape and get slowly smaller from base to tip. The antennae are covered in many setae, but the sensilla are not discernible. The fore-wings are about long, with discernible microtrichia, but due to the folding of the wings the presence of an alar lobe was not confirmed. The hind-wings in other genera are modified into elongated
halteres ''Halteres'' (; singular ''halter'' or ''haltere'') (from grc, ἁλτῆρες, weights held in the hands to give an impetus in leaping) are a pair of small club-shaped organs on the body of two orders of flying insects that provide infor ...
, but due to positioning in the amber, they are not detectable on the type specimen. The abdomen is broad and generally slightly oblong in outline, with two long setae on the developed apical lobes. There are apical setae are associated with probable glandular pouches and the body is associated with detached waxy filaments. The peniel sheath is divided into a basal rounded section and a narrow style, slightly downward curved, with pointed end.


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21224914 Fossil taxa described in 2004 Cretaceous insects Cretaceous insects of Asia Burmese amber Fossils of Myanmar Extinct Hemiptera