Discovery of the “last” Central European cylapine plant bug and its implications on biogeography and taphocenology

Abstract The subfamily Cylapinae Kirkaldy, 1903 with its 530 extant species assigned to 100 genera within six tribes, is a relatively small group of the hyperdiverse true bug family, Miridae (Heteroptera: Cimicomorpha). However, the exact diversity and distribution of the subfamily remain largely unknown due to its obscure lifestyle: cylapine bugs mainly live under tree bark and in decaying wood. The representatives of the subfamily are mostly of tropical-subtropical distribution with the fauna consisting of merely 60 species of 14 generain the warmest part of the Palaearctic region, and only a single species present in the European part of the Mediterranean. The fossil record of the subfamily consists of 30 species: 27 species from the Eocene (mostly from Baltic amber) and two from the Miocene (one from Dominican amber and one from Iberian lacustrine oil shale). Here, we report the first representative of the subfamily, Pulafulvius pliocenicus gen. et sp. nov. from the Pliocene of the Carpathian Basin. The species appears to be one of the youngest members of the cylapine palaeofauna of Europe, and thus, has significant implications for the historical biogeography of the subfamily and the palaeoenvironment of the Pula Maar Lake site.