First Insects From The Manuherikia Group, Early Miocene, New Zealand

The Miocene Manuherikia Group in southern New Zealand is well known for its diverse assemblage of plant, invertebrate and vertebrate fossils. Here, we report the first fossil insects from the Manuherikia Group, comprising three isolated wings recovered from leaf beds in the Dunstan Formation near Cromwell, Otago. One partially preserved tegmen is tentatively assigned to Tropiduchidae (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea), a family of mainly tropical and subtropical planthoppers that is no longer represented in the New Zealand fauna. The brentine weevil Perroudia manuherikia n. sp. (Coleoptera: Brentidae) is the first fossil record of Brentinae from the Southern Hemisphere, with the sole extant species of Perroudia occurring in New Caledonia. A further wing has the typical venation pattern of Polycentropodidae (Trichoptera), a caddisfly family with two genera in the modern New Zealand fauna. These fossil taxa are reported from the Australasian region for the first time.