Insects are extremely successful animals today, and are the largest living group on Earth. The diversification of angiosperms during the Cretaceous offered new and diverse opportunities for feeding specializations, with the appearance of a modern insect fauna, including the first appearance of social insect, ecological success of pollinators. The record of Cretaceous insects has increased dramatically during the past twenty years due to discoveries of many new fossils including compressions and amber, and our knowledge of the evolution of insects has been improved greatly. 

Dr. WANG Bo and Prof. Ed Jarzembowski from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dr. Jacek Szwedo from University of Gdańsk, Poland have organised a special volume “Cretaceous insects: Diversity, palaeoecology and taphonomy” published in Cretaceous Research. This special issue contains 36 papers that reflect some of the research on Cretaceous insects. These papers covered 12 insect orders including Odonata, Dermaptera, Orthoptera, Psocodea, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Raphidioptera, Neuroptera, Coleoptera, Mecoptera, Siphonaptera, and Diptera. In total, 60 new species, 27 new genera, and 2 new families were described and illustrated. The fossils referred in this volume are from some highly productive deposits, including the Wealden Group of England, lithographic limestone of Sierra del Montsec of Spain, Yixian Formation of northeastern China, Zhonggou Formation of northwestern China, Zaza Formation at Baissa of Russia, Crato Formation of Brazil, Koonwarra of Australia, Lebanese amber, Spanish amber, Burmese amber, French amber, and Raritan amber. These findings not only have left a particularly vivid record of radiations and extinctions of Cretaceous insects, but also provide important clues to reconstruct the palaeoecology, palaeogeography and taphonomy of insects and ticks. 

Reference: Wang Bo, Szwedo Jacek (2015) Introduction to thematic issue, “Cretaceous insects: diversity, palaeoecology and taphonomy”. Cretaceous Research, 52: 313–315. 

Szwedo Jacek, Wang Bo, Jarzembowski E.A. (2015) Cretaceous insects: diversity, palaeoecology and taphonomy. Cretaceous Research, 52: 316–630.