Kingdom Animalia Subfamily Mindarinae Scientific name Mindarus harringtoni Higher classification Mindarus Order True bugs | Family Aphididae Genus Mindarus Phylum Arthropoda Rank Species | |
Mindarus harringtoni is an extinct species of aphid. The insect was discovered when Richard Harrington, a scientist and vice-president of the Royal Entomological Society of London, won an auction on eBay for a fossilized specimen, later to discover it was an unknown species. The fossil was bought from an individual from Lithuania. The insect itself is 3–4 millimetres (0.12–0.16 in) long and was encased in a piece of amber 40 to 50 million years ago.
The fossil was sent off to Professor Ole Heie, an aphid expert in Denmark, who confirmed the insect a new species, now extinct. The bug has been named Mindarus harringtoni after Harrington, who first considered naming it Mindarus ebayi after the site he won it on.
The fossil is now housed in the Natural History Museum.
Mindarus harringtoni is thought to have fed on a tree called Pinus succinifera which is itself now long since extinct.