Articles | Volume 21, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-21-285-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-21-285-2018
Research article
 | 
23 Oct 2018
Research article |  | 23 Oct 2018

A giant mite in Cretaceous Burmese amber

Jason A. Dunlop, Konrad Frahnert, and Joanna Mąkol

Cited articles

Arillo, A., Blagoderov, V. and Peñalver, E.: Early Cretaceous parasitism in amber: A new species of Burmazelmira fly (Diptera: Archizelmiridae) parasitized by a Leptus sp. mite (Acari, Erythraeidae), Cret. Res., 86, 24–32, 2018. 
Bartel, C., Konikiewicz, M., Mąkol, J., Wohltmann, A., and Dunlop, J. A.: Smaridid mites in Baltic and Bitterfeld amber, with notes on the fossil record of terrestrial Parasitengona (Trombidiformes: Prostigmata), Ann. Zool., 65, 641–659, 2015. 
Cockerell, T. D. A.: Arthropods in Burmese amber, Psyche, 24, 40–45, 1917. 
Coleman, C. O.: “Digital inking”: How to make perfect line drawings on computers, Org. Div. Evol., 3 (Electr. Suppl. 14), 1–14, 2003. 
Dunlop, J. A.: A large parasitengonid mite (Acari, Erythraeoidea) from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil, Foss. Rec., 10, 91–98, https://doi.org/10.1002/mmng.200700001, 2007. 
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Short summary
A new species of fossil mite, Immensmaris chewbaccei, is described from the 100 million-year-old (Cretcaeous) Burmese amber of Myanmar. It belongs to the modern family Smarididae and is of particular note for its enormous size, with a body length of about a centimetre. This makes it the largest example of an erythraeoid mite (the wider group to which it belongs), and in general it is one of the biggest mites ever to be recorded.
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