First fossil record of Caliscelidae (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea): a new Early Miocene Dominican amber genus extends the distribution of Augilini to the Neotropics

A new extinct genus and new species, Quizqueiplana alexbrowni gen. et sp. nov. of the tribe Augilini Baker belonging to the family Caliscelidae Amyot & Serville (Hemiptera, Fulgoromorpha, Fulgoroidea), is described from Early Miocene Dominican amber. This is the first fossil record of this planthopper family and an unexpected occurrence of the tribe Augilini from the Neotropical region. Augilini are only known from extant taxa in South-East Asia and Madagascar, as shown in a checklist of taxa in the tribe with their distributions. Biogeographical consequences for the Augilini lineage, now with a so-called Gondwanian disjunction pattern, are discussed. Host-plant data suggest that ancestral Augilini fed on Bambusoideae. A Late Palaeocene Laurasian origin for the lineage with later dispersal events, or an older Indo-Malagasian lineage with an early vicariance and later dispersion events, remain two possible explanations of the origin of the Augilini. [GRAPHICS]