![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/99-million-year-old-insect-1.jpg\")
<\/a>The newly described species \u2013 Cretoduros noonoo. Credit: Dolev Fabrikant<\/p>\nResearchers named the new species Cretodorus noonoo, or \u201cNoo-Noo.\u201d The insect belonged to Neazoniidae, an extinct family of planthoppers. Fossils came from Kachin amber in Myanmar and date to the Cretaceous Period<\/a>.<\/p>\n The study examined 13 amber fossils from Neazoniidae and related insects. Researchers used micro-computed tomography to study their feeding organs in three dimensions. The scans showed fine folds along the mouthparts, forming a dense, accordion-like surface.<\/p>\n The folds formed part of the mouthpart structure. They likely made the long tube flexible while stopping it from bending too far. The design resembles a bendy drinking straw or a flexible vacuum hose.<\/p>\n Several fossils preserve the mouthparts in bent positions. Amber trapped the insects in place, giving researchers evidence about their shape during life. The fossils support the idea of a flexible feeding organ.<\/p>\n Modern planthoppers use straw-like mouthparts to pierce plants and draw out internal fluids. The ancient insects had a much longer and more flexible version of this feeding system.<\/p>\n Researchers think Noo-Noo used its long mouthparts to probe cracks and narrow spaces in tree bark. The tip could reach deeper plant tissues, including vascular bundles carrying nutrient-rich fluids.<\/p>\n The mouthpart tip had another unusual feature. Two grooved lobes likely expanded during feeding and helped hold the organ against the crack walls. The action was similar to a wall plug expanding inside a drilled hole.<\/p>\n This feeding system would have helped the insects reach places inaccessible to insects with stiff mouthparts. Their organs also differed from the flexible proboscises used by butterflies to drink nectar.<\/p>\n Noo-Noo\u2019s mouthparts pointed backward and formed a piercing system. Researchers found no strong evidence of pollen on the insects\u2019 bodies. The fossils therefore offer little support for a role as pollinators.<\/p>\n The study also changes the classification of several extinct planthopper groups. Researchers propose treating Mimarachnidae as a synonym of Neazoniidae based on shared body and mouthpart features. This links fossil nymphs and adults within one family.<\/p>\n The team also moves the previously unplaced genus Spinonympha into Neazoniidae. Cretodorus noonoo represents a new species within the genus Cretodorus.<\/p>\n The name Noo-Noo comes from the friendly vacuum cleaner in the children\u2019s television series Teletubbies. Its long, flexible hose resembles the feeding organ of the ancient insect.<\/p>\n Similar corrugated feeding structures appeared independently in several unrelated Cretaceous insects. Some long-proboscid mecopterans also had comparable structures.<\/p>\n The repeated pattern points to specialized feeding methods in Mesozoic forests. The researchers link these insects with ancient resin-producing forests dominated by gymnosperms.<\/p>\n Such forests offered insects many plant surfaces and narrow spaces to feed from. Long, flexible mouthparts gave some insects access to fluids hidden deeper inside bark.<\/p>\n The findings show a feeding strategy with no close match among living planthoppers. They also add another example of unusual insect forms from the Cretaceous Period.<\/p>\n Publication: Fabrikant, D., Fu, Y., & Davranoglou, L.-R. (2026). Flexible drinking straws of the Cretaceous: A novel type of labium in Mesozoic Auchenorrhyncha and its functional implications. Insects, 17(8), 789. doi:10.3390\/insects17080789<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tiny insect trapped in amber about 99 million years ago had a strange way of feeding. Its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[253580,59,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-793834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-cretaceous-period","tag-gb","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Illustration of Cretoduros noonoo. Credit: Dolev Fabrikant<\/p>\n<\/a>Details of the specialized proboscis in Neazoniidae. Credit: Dolev Fabrikant<\/p>\n<\/a>An amber fossil of a Neazoniid planthopper. Credit: Dolev Fabrikant<\/p>\n