Female-biased froghoppers (Hemiptera, Cercopoidea) from the Mesozoic of China and phylogenetic reconstruction of early Cercopoidea

Cercopoidea is a diverse insect group, but its early evolution, disparity and ecology remain unclear. <i>Juroala daohugouensis</i> Chen &amp; Wang gen. et sp. nov., from the Middle–Upper Jurassic of north-eastern China, is established herein and described on the basis of 42 whole-bodied fossils, representing a new subfamily, Juroalinae subfam. nov. of the primitive family Sinoalidae. <i>Chengdecercopis</i> Hong, 1983 is transferred from Procercopidae to this new subfamily and <i>Stictocercopis</i> Fu &amp; Huang, 2018 is also attributed to the new subfamily. Fangyuanini Chen &amp; Wang trib. nov. is erected for <i>Fangyuania</i> Chen, Szwedo &amp; Wang, 2018 from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. Our cladistic analyses recover the relationships within the Cercopoidea as follows: (Juroalinae + (Sinoalini + Fangyuanini)) + (Procercopidae + (Cercopionidae + five modern families)). The evolutionary history and morphological diversification in the Mesozoic is discussed based on our phylogenetic reconstruction. In addition, the abundant material in the present study not only indicates high intra-specific or even intra-individual variation caused by biological and/or taphonomic factors, but also reveals an extremely female-biased propensity, suggesting that the new taxon probably had adaptations to special palaeoenvironments in physiology, ecology and ethology (e.g. parthenogenesis and sociability). http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:5EDD7D33-D509-4330-A01F-F41DF664E1C2