This True Bug, Superfamily Pentatomoidea, is one of nearly 300 insect species new to science recovered at the McAbee Fossil Heritage site near Cache Creek, BC. As studies of this site continue and new fossils are discovered, it may become the most important fossil insect site of its age on Earth.

This relative of the garden stink bug and the other similar insects lived in forests surrounding a lake situated near volcanoes about 53 million years ago, early in the Eocene Epoch. This was an exceptionally warm time in Earth’s history, but the interior of British Columbia was then a cooler upland, where temperatures varied much less during the year than today, and high, tropical levels of biodiversity occurred. Insects fell into the water and settled in the mud on the lake bottom where they were superbly preserved — often including tiny hairs — as it turned to shale.

This fossil bug and many other specimens were collected and donated by the late Rene Savenye.