A newly described Cretaceous planthopper, Cretodorus noonoo, had mouthparts nearly twice as long as its body. Preserved in roughly 99-million-year-old amber from Myanmar, the insect’s unusually long, corrugated feeding tube could bend while resisting kinks and collapse. The name “Noo-Noo” nods to the hose-like vacuum cleaner from Teletubbies.
What is the Noo-Noo insect?
Cretodorus noonoo is a newly described planthopper, an insect in the group Hemiptera and superfamily Fulgoroidea. It belongs to Neazoniidae, an extinct family. The specimen was preserved in Kachin amber from Myanmar, dated to about 99 million years ago in the mid-Cretaceous.
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Its “feeding tube” is its elongated mouthparts, also called a rostrum and stylets. The researchers report that these structures together reached nearly twice the insect’s body length. An exact measurement in millimetres was not stated in the cited reports, so the relative length is the reliable comparison.
How could such a long feeding tube bend?
The mouthparts had dense transverse folds, creating a corrugated surface like an accordion. Those folds would have allowed the tube to flex without kinking or collapsing, rather than behaving like a rigid needle. The flexible-hose comparison is useful: the folds help a long, narrow structure bend while maintaining its passage.
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Several amber specimens were preserved with their mouthparts bent. The researchers interpret those fossil positions as evidence that the structures were flexible in life, consistent with the corrugated anatomy.
How did researchers study the amber fossils?
The team used high-resolution micro-computed tomography to examine 13 amber fossils of Neazoniidae and related insects. The scans enabled three-dimensional reconstructions of their feeding organs, allowing comparisons of structures that are difficult to inspect through amber alone.
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The study was led by graduate student Dolev Fabrikant and Dr. Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou of Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology and Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, with Dr. Yanzhe Fu of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology. The work appeared in the journal Insects. The university-sourced announcement is available from EurekAlert; coverage is also available from Phys.org and Archaeology Magazine.
What might the insect have used the tube for?
The proposed function is to probe cracks and narrow spaces in tree bark and reach plant tissue deeper inside. That tissue could include vascular bundles, which transport nutrient-rich fluids through a plant. The tube’s flexibility would make it better suited to navigating confined spaces than a long, rigid mouthpart.
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This is an inference from the fossil’s anatomy, not a directly observed feeding event. The fossils show the shape and flexibility-related folds; they do not preserve a feeding action or identify a specific tree species the insect used.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does it add to the picture of Cretaceous insects?
Long or corrugated feeding structures are known in several unrelated Cretaceous insect groups. Their presence across different lineages raises the possibility that thick-barked trees and the plant resources hidden beneath bark favored insects able to reach into crevices. It is a proposed ecological explanation, not proof that all such insects fed in the same way.
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The study also revises relationships among fossil planthoppers. It places the previously unassigned genus Spinonympha, described from a Kachin amber nymph in a 2021 Insects paper, within Neazoniidae. The authors further propose treating Mimarachnidae as a synonym of Neazoniidae, bringing fossil nymphs and adults together in one family classification.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteWhy is it called “Noo-Noo”?
The nickname refers to Noo-Noo, the friendly vacuum cleaner in Teletubbies. Its hose resembles the insect’s long, flexible feeding structure. Some image captions spell the genus “Cretoduros,” but the press release and most coverage use Cretodorus.
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