New species of Lechytia Balzan, 1892 (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones) from Burmese amber highlights 99 million years of morphological stasis

The pseudoscorpion genus Lechytia Balzan, 1892 (Chthoniidae Daday, 1889: Lechytiinae Chamberlin, 1929) includes 27 extant species that are distributed across all continents except Antarctica, and a single extinct species from Dominican amber of Miocene age. We document the first record of Lechytia from Burmese amber (Cenomanian: ∼99 Ma), Lechytia finniae sp. nov., making it the oldest fossil record for Lechytia and extending the known temporal range of this group by more than 70 million years into the Mesozoic. The new species differs from most extant Lechytia species due to the distance between trichobothria sb and b that are separated by at least one areolar diameter, and by the absence of eyes. Since there is a close morphological resemblance between L. finniae sp. nov. and extant Lechytia species, the new fossil is placed in an extant genus and represents yet another example of morphological stasis in pseudoscorpions. The presence of Lechytia in Burmese amber implies that this genus was present on the Burma Terrane in the Cretaceous although no extant species are known from this landmass today. The ecology of extant species may lend support to a tropical forest environment on the Burma Terrane.