The whitefly puparia from Cretaceous amber reveal early subfamily diversification

Morphological information on fossil whiteflies has been largely limited to adult specimens. Described puparia fossils provide little morphological information due to the fossilisation process on substrates and the main characters to place them in a subfamily are missing. Here, we describe and illustrate three extinct species: Palaeoaleuroclava grandirostrata gen. et sp. nov., Cretacerifera mranmaense gen. et sp. nov. (subfamily Aleyrodinae), and Cenomaleurodicus multiporu gen. et sp. nov. (subfamily Aleurodicinae), based on puparia preserved in mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber (ca. 100 Mya). These fossils represent the first known whitefly puparia with visible dorsal and ventral surfaces and wax traces, the first record of a specimen of the subfamily Aleurodicinae, and the only known occurrence from the Mesozoic era. The morphological information available in the specimens' fossils allows discussion of the evolution of the subfamilies Aleyrodinae and Aleurodicinae, based on the presence of claws and compound pores, and the proportions of the lingula. Comparative analysis reveals that several key morphological features observed in extant genera evolved by the mid-Cretaceous, providing new insights into the early evolution and diversification of whiteflies during the late Mesozoic.