Priscacutius denticulatus Poinar & Brown, 2018, new placement

Dietrich, Christopher H. & Thomas, M. Jared, 2018, New eurymeline leafhoppers (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae, Eurymelinae) from Eocene Baltic amber with notes on other fossil Cicadellidae, ZooKeys 726, pp. 131-143 : 137

Priscacutius denticulatus Poinar & Brown, 2018, new placement

Notes.

This recently described fossil taxon from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar (Burmese) amber (~99 Ma) was originally considered unplaced to subfamily ( Poinar and Brown 2018). The holotype fossil was not re-examined but, based on the original photos and description, this species may be confidently placed in the modern subfamily Signoretiinae (new placement) based on the enlarged, punctate pronotum that extends to the scutellar suture ( Poinar and Brown 2018: fig. 4). Poinar and Brown (2018) labeled the posterior part of the pronotum as the mesonotum but we interpret the entire sclerite (labeled “P” and “M” in their fig. 4) as the pronotum. Priscacutius Poinar & Brown, 2018 runs to tribe Phlogisini in the key of Takiya et al. (2013) based on the position of the ocelli on the crown, distant from the anterior margin and the lack of distinct carinae on the crown and face. On this basis it is here included in Phlogisini although it exhibits several unique features. The tuberculate sensillum adjacent to the antenna, the relatively broad forewing with truncate apex, and the enlarged preapical teeth and elongate apical spines of the first hind tarsomere distinguish Priscacutius from previously known genera of Signoretiinae ( Takiya et al. 2013, Viraktamath and Dietrich 2017).