Confocal laser scanning microscopy is an essential analytical tool in biological, biomedical, and material sciences, integrating microscope manufacturing technology, optical-electronic technology, and computer technology. In the last decade, confocal laser scanning microscopy has been successfully applied to the study of amber bioinclusions. Enhanced signal to noise ratios, resolution power, capability of optical sectioning, three-dimensional reconstruction, and better performance when imaging thicker samples provide a great deal of valuable and detailed morphological information about amber fossils. We briefly discuss the practical applications of CLSM in amber studies and compare it with other imaging methods commonly used in the field, including bright-field microscopy, wide-field fluorescence microscopy, and micro-computed tomography. A general procedure for imaging amber inclusions with CLSM is provided, with a focus on pretreatments and image processing.

The extinct family Dysmorphoptilidae has been the most typical and dominant member of the Triassic cicadomorphan insects, widespread during the Middle Permian to the Middle Jurassic. Herein Tennentsia orientalis sp. nov. is characterised, described and illustrated based on a well-preserved forewing from the Middle Triassic Yanchang Formation of Shaanxi Province, northern China. The new taxon can be readily distinguished from all other Gondwana members of Tennentsia by its tegminal emarginations deeper and more acute, without contrasting colour pattern, short ScP+RA with single prenodal veinlet, and two branches of RP. This discovery expands the biogeographic distribution of Dysmorphoptilidae to the Ordos basin of China, representing the first record of the subfamily Dysmorphoptilinae in the Northern Hemisphere which provides valuable information for reconstructing its historical range. In addition, Gallegomorphoptila breviptera Martins-Neto, Gallego and Melchor, 2003, G. acostai Martins-Neto and Gallego, 1999, G. gigantea Martins-Neto and Gallego, 2001, and G. kotejai Martins-Neto and Gallego, 2006 are transferred to Dysmorphoptiloides Evans, 1956, resulting in Dysmorphoptiloides breviptera (Martins-Neto, Gallego and Melchor, 2003), comb. n., D. acostai (Martins-Neto and Gallego, 1999), comb. n., D. pulcherrima (Martins-Neto and Gallego, 2003), comb. n., and D. kotejai (Martins-Neto and Gallego, 2006), comb. n..

Mimarachnidae is an extinct planthopper family of the superfamily Fulgoroidea, with ten genera from the Cretaceous of Eurasia. Here, we describe a new genus, Cretodorus gen. nov. and two new species, Cretodorus granulatus sp. nov. and C. angustus sp. nov., on the basis of four specimens from the mid-Cretaceous amber of northern Myanmar. This remarkable genus can be separated from all other mimarachnids as follows: moderately elongate head, anteriorly protruded pronotum with straight lateral carinae, and unbranched MP of tegmen. Additionally, a new species of Burmissus Shcherbakov, 2017, Burmissus latimaculatus sp. nov., is described from the same Burmese amber, and the morphological characters of Burmissus szwedoi Luo, Jiang, Wang & Xiao, 2020 are supplemented for pronotum, clypeus, rostrum, and legs. These new discoveries enrich the palaeodiversity of mimarachnid planthoppers to fifteen species, ten of which are described from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, suggesting that this extinct family remained highly diverse during this period.

Hemiptera, the fifth most diverse insect order, are characterized by their high diversity in deep time, with 145 known extinct families. However, the precise timing of the origin of Hemiptera lineages has remained uncertain. Traditional approaches, molecular clock analyses and fossil calibrations, have overlooked much of this extinct diversity by failing to incorporate key fossil data. Furthermore, no estimates have been proposed for the timing of the extinction of Hemiptera’s fossil lineages. In this study, we use the recently developed Bayesian Brownian Bridge model, which estimates the timing of lineage origin and extinction through fossil-based Bayesian modelling, to provide a temporal framework for the rise and fall of 310 major hemipteran lineages. Our results support an early Pennsylvanian origin of Hemiptera, and indicate that the major hemipteran lineages originated between the late Carboniferous and Late Permian (Pennsylvanian-Lopingian). Additionally, our analyses reveal a radiation of Hemiptera during the Permian (Guadalupian), followed by multiple extinctions of ancient hemipteran lineages from the Permo-Triassic boundary to the mid-Triassic. A second major radiation occurred during the Cretaceous, coinciding with numerous extinctions of relic and newly emerging Cretaceous lineages, highlighting a faunal turnover. Our study provides a holistic fossil-based picture of the evolutionary history of Hemiptera.