Brood care in a 100-million-year-old scale insect

摘要: Behavior of extinct organisms can be inferred only indirectly, but occasionally rare fossils document particular behaviors directly. Brood care, a remarkable behavior promoting the survival next generation, has evolved independently numerous times among animals including insects. However, fossil evidence such complex is exceptionally scarce. Here, we report an ensign scale insect (Hemiptera: Ortheziidae), Wathondara kotejai gen. et sp. nov., from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, which preserves eggs within wax ovisac, and several freshly hatched nymphs. The new Mesozoic record adult female insect. More importantly, our finding represents earliest unequivocal direct brood care in demonstrates remarkably conserved egg-brooding reproductive strategy insects stasis for nearly 100 million years.