A True Bug with a True but Unique Chela in 100 Million-Year-Old Amber

(Thysanoptera), Dryinidae (Hymenoptera), and Carcinocorini (Heteroptera). Here, we report a new find from about 100 million-year-old Kachin amber, representing, to our knowledge, the first case of a fossil of the group Insecta with a chelate type of appendage. This find is only the fourth case of an independent or convergent evolution of such a structure. A quantitative morphological comparison of over 2000 grasping structures reveals that the proximal part of the chela (in this case, the femur) has a unique shape in the fossil, unparalleled in the fossil and modern fauna. Moreover, some other new fossils reported do not possess such a shape. The mouthparts, forming a distinct beak, allow us to identify the new fossil with the distinct chela as a representative of Heteroptera. Its short beak, together with some other characteristics, indicates that it most likely is a representative of Nepomorpha. Many other details of the fossil are not well preserved, but the overall appearance shows similarities to extant and fossil representatives of Gelastocoridae, a group of terrestrial predators.

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Publication Details

Journal
Insects
Published
2026-04-17
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/insects17040431
Primary Topic
Fossil Insects in Amber
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

A True Bug with a True but Unique Chela in 100 Million-Year-Old Amber

Marie K. Hörnig, Florian Braig, Carolin Haug, Joachim T. Haug et al.
Insects
Fossil Insects in Amber
article

A True Bug with a True but Unique Chela in 100 Million-Year-Old Amber

Marie K. Hörnig, Florian Braig, Carolin Haug, Joachim T. Haug, Fenja I. Haug
article en

Abstract

(Thysanoptera), Dryinidae (Hymenoptera), and Carcinocorini (Heteroptera). Here, we report a new find from about 100 million-year-old Kachin amber, representing, to our knowledge, the first case of a fossil of the group Insecta with a chelate type of appendage. This find is only the fourth case of an independent or convergent evolution of such a structure. A quantitative morphological comparison of over 2000 grasping structures reveals that the proximal part of the chela (in this case, the femur) has a unique shape in the fossil, unparalleled in the fossil and modern fauna. Moreover, some other new fossils reported do not possess such a shape. The mouthparts, forming a distinct beak, allow us to identify the new fossil with the distinct chela as a representative of Heteroptera. Its short beak, together with some other characteristics, indicates that it most likely is a representative of Nepomorpha. Many other details of the fossil are not well preserved, but the overall appearance shows similarities to extant and fossil representatives of Gelastocoridae, a group of terrestrial predators.

InsectsVol. 17(4)
Richard Wolf (Germany) (DE), University of Rostock (DE), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE), University of Oulu (FI)
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Volkswagen Foundation, Universität Rostock
Openalex Percentile: Top 17%
Fossil Insects in Amber
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A True Bug with a True but Unique Chela in 100 Million-Year-Old Amber — Marie K. Hörnig, Florian Braig, et al. · Insects (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS