''Albicoccus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

scale insect Scale insects are small insects of the Order (biology), order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient g ...

in the extinct

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

family Albicoccidae, containing a single species, ''Albicoccus dimai''. The genus is solely known from the

Albian The Albian is both an age (geology), age of the geologic timescale and a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early/Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch/s ...

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy's (ICS) geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Cretace ...

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. Th ...

deposits.

History and classification

''Albicoccus'' is known from the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

specimen, collection number BMNH In. 20155(2), which along a limoniid and a psychodid fly, are

inclusion Inclusion or Include may refer to: Sociology * Social inclusion, action taken to support people of different backgrounds sharing life together. ** Inclusion (disability rights), promotion of people with disabilities sharing various aspects of lif ...

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 (Lo ...

London, England London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin. Examples of it have been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since the Neolithic times, and worked as a gemstone since antiquity."Amber" (2004). In Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen (eds.) ''Encyclopedia ...

specimen was recovered from deposits exposed in the

Hukawng Valley The Hukawng Valley (; 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 in the northernmost part of the country. It has the Hukaung Valley ...

Kachin State Kachin State (; Jingpho language, Kachin: ) is the northernmost administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east (Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet and Yunnan, respectively), Shan State to the sou ...

, Myanmar. Burmese amber has been

radiometrically dated Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurities were selectively incorporated when they were formed. The method compares t ...

using U- Pb isotopes, yielding an age of approximately 99 million years old, close to the

–

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 a ...

. Kotejas 2004

type description A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

of the family, genus and species was published in the ''

Journal of Systematic Palaeontology The ''Journal of Systematic Palaeontology'' (Print: , online: ) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of palaeontology published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the British Natural History Museum. , the editor-in-chief is Paul D. Taylor. The ...

''. He coined the

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''dimai'' to honor the Russian paleoentomologist and hemipteran researcher Dmitri (Dima) Shcherbakov, who assisted Koteja with fossil coccid research.
The family name is a derivative of the genus name ''Albicoccus'', itself a derivation of Albian, the age of the amber deposits, and "coccus" a common genus name suffix for scale insects. ''Albicoccus'' is one of three Burmese amber coccid genera that Koteja described in the same paper, the other two being '' Burmacoccus'', monotypic to the family Burmacoccidae, and the ''

incertae sedis or is a term used for a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

'' genus '' Marmyan''. He placed ''Albicoccus'' into the monotypic family Albicoccidae based on the combination of characters that indicate a relationship to the archaeococcoid group scale insects, but are not found in any one particular family. Koteja noted the reduced eye structuring is similar to other groups with reduced eyes, but the placement of the ommatidia rows are lateral rather than in oblique or perpendicular rows. The abdomen has two pairs of setae near the end, a feature that is similar to the

New Jersey amber New Jersey Amber, sometimes called Raritan amber, is amber found in the Raritan Formation, Raritan and Magothy Formations of the Mid-Atlantic states, Central Atlantic (Eastern) coast of the United States. It is dated to the Late Cretaceous, Turoni ...

genus '' Turonicoccus'', but all other features differ.
A

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

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 Both Koteja and Hodgson and Hardy, the 2015 analysis recovered ''Albicoccus'' as a neoccoid genus along with the fossil genera '' Kuenowicoccus'', '' Pennygullania'', and '' Inka''.

Description

The single described adult male is approximately long, with hyaline wings. The details of the head are not readily discernible, being obscured by one wing, but the eyes are clearly composed of approximately four ommatidia and an

ocellus A simple eye or ocellus (sometimes called a pigment pit) is a form of eye or an optical arrangement which has a single lens without the sort of elaborate retina that occurs in most vertebrates. These eyes are called "simple" to distinguish the ...

. 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 longest segment and the other segments tending towards being barbell shaped. The fore-wings are about long, without discernible

microtrichia Insect morphology is the study and description of the morphology (biology), physical form of insects. The terminology used to describe insects is similar to that used for other arthropods due to their shared evolutionary history. Three physical f ...

. The hind-wings in other genera are modified into elongated

halteres ''Halteres'' (; singular ''halter'' or ''haltere'') (from , hand-held weights to give an impetus in leaping) are a pair of small club-shaped organs on the body of two Order (biology), orders of flying insects that provide information about ...

, but due to positioning in the amber, they are not detectable on the type specimen. The abdomen is conical in outline, narrowing towards the tip, with two very long setae on each side and having a developed penial sheath. The setae do not have any visible wax secretions associated with them. The sheath is divided into a basal rounded section and a narrow style, slightly downward curved, with pointed end.

Pathogens

An undescribed male albicoccid trapped in Burmese amber played host to the ancient parasitic fungus '' Paleoophiocordyceps coccophagus'', with two whip-like fruiting bodies emerging from the animal's head.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20817546

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species or languages). It is one of the mo ...

Extinct Hemiptera Fossil taxa described in 2004 Cretaceous insects of Asia Burmese amber Early Cretaceous insects Late Cretaceous insects Albian genus first appearances Cenomanian genus extinctions Early Cretaceous arthropods of Asia Late Cretaceous arthropods of Asia