Haemaphysalis cretaceaa nymph of a new species of hard tick in Burmese amber

The first fossil potentially assignable to the extant hard tick genus Haemaphysalis CL Koch (1844) (Ixodida: Ixodidae) is described from the Late Cretaceous (ca. 99 Ma) Burmese amber of Myanmar. Haemaphysalis ( Alloceraea ) cretacea sp. nov. is the oldest and only fossil representative of this genus; living members of which predominantly feed on mammals. Their typical hosts are known since at least the Jurassic and the discovery of a...