Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T14:05:47.446Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the systematic position of a highly derived amphiesmenopteran insect from Burmese amber (Insecta, Amphiesmenoptera)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2018

Wolfram Mey ,
Wilfried Wichard ,
Emma Ross  and
Andrew Ross
Wolfram Mey*
Affiliation:
Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute of Evolution and Biodiversity Research at the Humboldt University, Invalidenstrasse 43, D-10115 Berlin, Germany. Email: wolfram.mey@mfn-berlin.de
Wilfried Wichard
Affiliation:
University of Koeln, Institute of Biology, Gronewaldstrasse 2, D-50931 Koeln, Germany. Email: Wichard@uni-koeln.de
Emma Ross
Affiliation:
Department of Natural Sciences, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, EH1 1JF, UK, Email: A.Ross@nms.ac.uk
Andrew Ross
Affiliation:
Department of Natural Sciences, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, EH1 1JF, UK, Email: A.Ross@nms.ac.uk
*
*Corresponding author
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A small fossil insect with scales on the wings and body was identified as a representative of Aphiesmenoptera from Burmese amber. The species is introduced here as Tarachocelis microlepidopterella (†). The insect is described in detail, and photos and line drawings are provided for wing venation, head, mouthparts, scales, legs and abdomen. All characters shared with primitive Lepidoptera and Trichoptera are symplesiomorphies or groundplan traits of Amphiesmenoptera. In addition, the Burmese fossil has a number of remarkable autapomorphies, giving it an appearance that deviates clearly from known families of Lepidoptera and Trichoptera. The species, representing a family of its own, Tarachocelidae, is considered a separate and unique taxon in the stem-group of Amphiesmenoptera and is provisionally placed as Amphiesmenoptera incertae sedis.*

*NB: See Note Added in Proof (Section 4).

Keywords

CretaceousLepidopteramicrolepidopterellaphylogenystem-groupTarachocelidaeTarachocelistaxonomyTrichoptera
Type
Articles
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 107 , Issue 2-3: Fossil Insects, Arthropods and Amber , June 2016 , pp. 249 - 254
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

5. References

Ansorge, J. 2002. Revision of the “Trichoptera” described by Gleinitz and Handlirsch from the Lower Toarcian of Dobbertin (Germany) based on new material. In Mey, W. (ed.) Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Trichoptera, Potsdam, Germany 2000. – Nova Supplementa Entomologica 14. xxiv+664 pp.Google Scholar
Ansorge, J. 2003. Upper Liassic Amphiesmenopterans (Trichoptera + Lepidoptera) from Germany – a review. Acta Zoological Cracoviensia 46, 285–90.Google Scholar
Botosaneanu, L. 1981. On a false and genuine caddis-fly from Burmese amber (Insecta. Trichoptera, Homoptera). Bulletin Zoologisch Museum, Universiteit van Amsterdam 8 (10), 73–78.Google Scholar
Cockerell, T. D. A. 1919. Two interesting insects in Burmese Amber. The Entomologist 52, 193–95.Google Scholar
Gibbs, G. W. 2010. Micropterigidae (Lepidoptera) of the Southwestern Pacific. a revision with the establishment of five new genera from Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand. Zootaxa 2520, 1–48.Google Scholar
Gibbs, G.W. & Kristensen, N.P 2011. Agrionympha, the long-known South African jaw moths. A revision with descriptions of new species (Lepidoptera, Micropterigidae). Zootaxa 2764, 1–21.Google Scholar
Grimaldi, D. D., Engle, M. S. & Nascimbene, P. C. 2002. Fossiliferous Cretaceous amber from Myanmar (Burma): its rediscovery, biotic diversity and paleontological significance. American Museum Novitates 3361, 1–71.Google Scholar
Grimaldi, D. & Engel, M. S. 2005. Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. xv+755 pp.Google Scholar
Huang, D., Nel, A. & Minet, J. 2010. A new family of moths from the Middle Jurassic (Insecta: Lepidoptera). Acta Geologica (English Edition) 84, 874–85.Google Scholar
Huxley, J. & Barnard, P. C. 1988. Wing scales of Pseudoleptocerus chirindensis Kimmins (Trichoptera. Leptoceridae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 92, 285–312.Google Scholar
Kristensen, N. P. 1984. Studies on the morphology and systematics of primitive Lepidoptera (Insecta). Steenstrupia 10, 141–91.Google Scholar
Kristensen, N. P. 1998. The non-glossatan moths. In. Kristensen, N. P (ed.) Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies, vol. 1 Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbuch der Zoologie, Bd. IV, Teilband 35, 41–49. Berlin & Hawthorne, New York: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. 530 pp.Google Scholar
Kristensen, N. P. 2003. Resolving the basal phylogeny of Lepidoptera: morphological evidence. Entomologische Abhandlungen 61, 167–69.Google Scholar
Kristensen, N. P., Hilton, D. J., Kallies, A., Milla, L., Rota, J., Wahlberg, N., Wilcox, S. A., Glatz, R. V., Young, D. A., Cocking, G., Edwards, T., Gibbs, G. W. & Halsey, M. 2014. A new extant family of primitive moths from Kangaroo Island, Australia, and its significance for understanding early Lepidoptera evolution. Systematic Entomology 40, 5–16.Google Scholar
Kristensen, N. P. & Nielsen, E. S. 1979. A new subfamily of micropterigid moths from South America. A contribution to the morphology and phylogeny of the Micropterigidae with a generic catalogue of the family (Lepidoptera. Zeugloptera). Steenstrupia 5(7), 69–147.Google Scholar
Kristensen, N. P. & Nielsen, E. S. 1982. South American micropterigid moths. two new genera of the Sabatinca-group (Lepidoptera, Micropterigidae). Entomologica scandinavica 13, 513–29.Google Scholar
Kristensen, N. P. & Skalski, A. W. 1998. Phylogeny and Palaeontology. In Kristensen, N. P. (ed.) Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies, vol. 1 Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbuch der Zoologie, Bd. IV, Teilband 35, 7–26. Berlin & Hawthorne, New York: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. 530 pp.Google Scholar
Mey, W. 2011. On the systematic position of Baltimartyria Skalski, 1995 and description of a new species from Baltic amber (Lepidoptera; Micropterigidae). Zookeys 130, 331–42.Google Scholar
Mey, W., Wichard, W., Műller, P. & Wang, B. 2017. The blueprint of the Amphiesmenoptera – Tarachoptera, a new order of insects from Burmese amber (Insecta, Amphiesmenoptera). Fossil Record 20, 129–45.Google Scholar
Rasnitsyn, A. P. 1983. [First finding of Lepidoptera of Jurassic age.] Doklady Academiya Nauk SSSR, 269, 467–71. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Rasnitsyn, A. P. & Quicke, D. L. J. (eds) 2002. History of Insects. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. xii+517 pp.Google Scholar
Regier, J. C., Mitter, C., Kristensen, N. P., Davis, D. R., Van Nieukerken, E., Rota, J., Simonsen, T., Mitter, K. T., Kawahara, A. Y., Yen, S.-H., Cummings, M. P. & Zwick, A. 2015. A molecular phylogeny for the oldest (nonditrysian) lineages of extant Lepidoptera, with implications for classification, comparative morphology and life-history evolution. Systematic Entomology 40, 671–704, doi. 10.1111/syen.12129.Google Scholar
Ross, A., Mellish, C., York, P. & Crighton, B. 2010. Burmese Amber. In Penney, D. (ed.) Biodiversity of fossils in amber from the major world deposits, 208–35. Manchester: Siri Scientific Press. 305 pp.Google Scholar
Schachat, S. R. & Gibbs, G. W. 2016. Variable wing venation in Agathiphaga (Lepidoptera: Agathiphagidae) is key to understanding the evolution of basal moths. Royal Society Open Science 3, 160453 (doi 10.11098/rsos.160453).Google Scholar
Scoble, M. 1992. The Lepidoptera. Form, Function and Diversity. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. xi+404 pp.Google Scholar
Simonsen, T. J. 2001. The wing vestiture of the non-ditrysian Lepidoptetra (Insecta). Comparative morphology and phylogenetic implications. Acta Zoologica (Stockholm) 82, 275–98.Google Scholar
Sohn, J.-C., Labandeira, C., Davis, D. & Mitter, C. 2012. An annotated catalogue of fossil and subfossil Lepidoptera (Insecta. Holometabola) of the world. Zootaxa 3286, 1–132.Google Scholar
Whalley, P. 1978. New taxa of fossil and recent Micropterigidae with a discussion of their evolution and a comment on the evolution of Lepidoptera (Insecta). Annals of the Transvaal Museum 31, 71–85.Google Scholar
Whalley, P. E. S. 1985. The systematics and palaeogeography of the Lower Jurassic insects of Dorset, England. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geological Series 39, 107–89.Google Scholar
Wichard, W., Ross, E. & Ross, A. 2011. Palerasnitsynus gen. n. (Trichoptera: Psychomyiidae) from Burmese amber. Zookeys 130, 323–30.Google Scholar
Wichard, W. & Poinar, G. O. Jr. 2005. Köcherfliegen aus dem Burma Bernstein der oberen Kreide von Myanmar (Insecta, Trichoptera). Mitteilungen des Geologisch-Paläontologischen Instituts der Universität Hamburg 89, 129–36.Google Scholar
Wichard, W. & Wang, B. 2016. New Cretaceous caddisflies from Burmese amber (Insecta, Trichoptera). Cretaceous Research 61, 129–35.Google Scholar
Zhang, W.-T., Shih, C.-K., Labandeira, C. C., Sohn, J.-C., Davis, D. R., Santiago-Blay, J. A., Flint, O. & Ren, D. 2013. New fossil Lepidoptera (Insecta. Amphiesmenoptera) from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of northeastern China. PLoS ONE 8(11). e79500. doi. 10.1371.Google Scholar