[Nature]Mesozoic insect mothering

From Nature 520, 134 (09 April 2015) doi:10.1038/520134c

Insects that care for their young have been around for at least 95 million years, the discovery of an amber-entombed bug from Myanmar suggests.

All kinds of extant insects care for their offspring, including some species of scale insect (Coccoidea) that hatch their young from egg sacs on their abdomens. Bo Wang at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology in China and his team now provide evidence for such behaviour in a new species of scale insect,Wathondara kotejai (pictured), which was found in northern Myanmar in a piece of amber 95 million to 105 million years old. Approximately 60 eggs coat the abdomen of the entombed female specimen, and six newly hatched individuals were also preserved in the amber.