Dead bugs do tell tales: implications of a new fossil assassin bug (Heteroptera: Reduviidae) for the evolutionary history and systematics of an extant lineage

The following thesis comprises three parts: (1) the description of a new fossil assassin bug, (2) the use of this newly described taxon to inform the phylogenetic history of the family, and (3) a survey of previously-described extinct taxa compiled into the first taxonomic catalog of fossil Reduvioidea. The first chapter presents a new Eocene (Ypresian) fossil assassin bug, Aphelicophontes iuddorum gen. et sp. nov. (Reduviidae: Harpactorinae), described from the Green River Formation of Colorado. The specimens informing this description are marked by an extraordinary level of preservation, particularly in external and internal structures of the adult male genitalia. Following the description, discussions of phylogenetic signal and the implications for the systematics and evolutionary history of the group are presented. The second chapter uses Aphelicophontes iuddorum gen. et sp. nov. as a new calibration point in order to re-estimate the divergence dates of Reduvioidea. This analysis also utilizes a new set of fossil calibrations from previous studies. Tree topology is inferred using MrBayes and RAxML, and divergence dates are inferred using BEAST2. Convergence was not reached in the BEAST analysis, resulting in divergence estimates with low levels of support in which the divergence of Reduvioidea from Heteroptera was suggested to be 344 Ma. The potential problems with this and previous divergence estimates are discussed. To supplement and better justify the description and placement of the new taxon, an annotated taxonomic catalog of the fossil Reduvioidea was compiled; this composes the third chapter of the thesis. This catalog marks the first such compilation for the 48 extinct members of the group and documents additional information such as the taphonomy, age (with references), and type repository for each fossil. Supplementing the catalog proper is a discussion of the subfamilial distribution of fossil reduvioid taxa, with tables enumerating undescribed fossil reduvioid material and fossil species originally but erroneously described in Reduviidae. The thesis concludes with a general discussion of potential future work involving fossil Reduvioidea