First fossil blood sucking Psychodidae in South America: a sycoracine moth fly (Insecta: Diptera) in the middle Miocene Amazonian amber

Abstract

Sycorax peruensis sp.n. is the fi rst blood sucking fossil Psychodidae in South America. Th e new species mainly diff ers from all recent Neotropical Sycoracinae in its number of antennal segments. It is described from the middle Miocene Western Amazonian amber, which included an intertropical entomofauna previous to the land connection with Central and North America that occurred in the latest Miocene-Pliocene. Insects from this material are diverse with normal bias for amber inclusions of Diptera and Hymenoptera and small-sized specimens.