''Bersta'' is an extinct genus of

hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from ...

n in the monotypic family Berstidae. It is known from two species found in the

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 ...

aged

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 ...

of Myanmar. The external morphology suggests that the genus were beetle mimics. Bersta lateral

Etymology

The genus is named after Berstuk, a shapeshifting Slavic forest deity of the Sorb and

Wend Wend may refer to: * Wends, an ethnic group * WEnd, the marker for the end of a while loop in some computer languages * WEND, a modern rock radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States People * Chris Wend (born 1987), German sprin ...

peoples.

Morphology

The length of the members of the genus is less than 2.6 mm, the

abdominal The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

trichobothria Trichobothria (singular trichobothrium) are elongate setae ("hairs") present in arachnids, various orders of insects, and myriapods that function in the detection of airborne vibrations and currents, and electrical charge. In 1883, Friedrich Da ...

are absent, the abdominal spiracles are on unified

sternal plates The sternum (: sternums or sterna) or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major blood ve ...

, and each

hemelytron An elytron (; ; : elytra, ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometime ...

has three longitudinal veins present.

Ecology

The authors of the describing paper stated that the morphology strongly resembled those of beetles belonging to the families

Tenebrionidae Darkling beetle is the common name for members of the beetle family Tenebrionidae, comprising over 20,000 species in a cosmopolitan distribution. Taxonomy ''Tenebrio'' is the Latin generic name that Carl Linnaeus assigned to some flour beetles ...

Trogossitidae Trogossitidae, also known as bark-gnawing beetles, are a small family in the superfamily Cleroidea. Many taxa formerly within this family have been removed (as of 2019) to other families, such as Lophocateridae, Peltidae, Protopeltidae, Rentoniid ...

and

Nitidulidae The sap beetles, also known as Nitidulidae, are a family of beetles. They are small (2–6 mm) ovoid, usually dull-coloured beetles, with knobbed antennae. Some have red or yellow spots or bands. They feed mainly on decaying vegetable ma ...

. They proposed the ''Bersta'' could have been an

aggressive mimic Aggressive mimicry is a form of mimicry in which predators, parasites, or parasitoids share similar signals, using a harmless model, allowing them to avoid being correctly identified by their prey or host. Zoologists have repeatedly compared ...

, using its morphology to fool potential prey by resembling them.

Phylogeny

A phylogenetic analysis found the genus to be a member of

Miroidea Miroidea is a superfamily of true bugs in the order Hemiptera. There are about 7 families and more than 15,000 described species in Miroidea. Families These seven families belong to the superfamily Miroidea: * Microphysidae Dohrn, 1859 * Mirid ...

, and the sister family to

Tingidae The Tingidae, commonly referred to as lace bugs due to their intricate wings, are a Family (biology), family of very small (2-10 mm (0.08-0.39 in)) Insect, insects in the order Hemiptera. These insects exist in multiple regions of the world and live ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q104861604 Cretaceous insects of Asia Burmese amber Fossil taxa described in 2020 Cimicomorpha Prehistoric insect genera