Palaeoentomology

A new leafhopper (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) from late Eocene Rovno amber described based on an adult and associated last-instar nymph from Perebrody (Ukraine)

2021-03-18T02:06:09+13:00

Rovnoxestus rasnitsyni gen. & sp. nov. is described from Eocene Rovno amber based on an adult female and fifth-instar nymph collected at a recently discovered locality at Perebrody, Rovno Province, Ukraine. The new fossil taxon is tentatively placed in Aphrodinae and resembles Xestocephalites Dietrich & Gonçalves from Eocene Baltic amber but has the hind femur macrosetal formula 2+2+1 and hind tarsomere I in both nymph and adult with an elongated inner preapical seta. This is the first species of Eocene leafhopper for which both the adult and nymph are described in detail.

**New species of Kamopanorpa Martynov from the Permian of South Siberia with comments on the systematic position of Microptysmatidae (Protomeropina = Permotrichoptera)**

2021-09-13T14:42:52+12:00

The systematic position of Microptysmatidae and Protomeropidae is critically reviewed in light of the latest reassessment by Minet et al. The Microptysmatidae belongs to a stem-group of Trichoptera, or at least to stem-Amphiesmenoptera (depending on chosen methodology), rather than to its own order Permotrichoptera as suggested by Minet et al., and Protomeropidae are not Mecoptera. The double anal loop of Kamopanorpa Martynov, 1928 is not significantly different from that of more advanced amphiesmenopterans, while in Microptysmella Kukalová-Peck & Willmann, 1990, anal veins show clear tendency to looping (not a “fairly different arrangement”). If Microptysmatidae are considered in the traditional way, the polarity of characters listed by Minet et al. as supporting monophyly of the order Permotrichoptera can be treated just the opposite: divided veins RS₁, RS₂ and M₁ are symplesiomorphies with Protomeropidae, and simple M₄ is the synapomorphy of Microptysmatidae, Cladochoristidae, and Amphiesmenoptera s. str. In addition, three new species of Kamopanorpa are described from the Permian deposits of Minusinsk Coal Basin, South Siberia: Kamopanorpa rasnitsyni sp. nov., K. sivchikovi sp. nov., and K. rotunda sp. nov. Some traits of fore- and hindwing venation of Microptysmatidae are discussed.

A new species of the ʻprotozygopteranʼ damselfly (Odonata: Permagrionidae) from the Lower-Middle Permian of Russia

2021-09-15T16:10:16+12:00

The small Paleozoic protozygopteran family Permagrionidae comprises 11 described species in 5 genera from the Lower Permian Chekarda and Solikamsk localities in Russia (Zalessky, 1948; Nel et al., 2012) and Salagou Formation in France (Nel et al., 1999; Fate et al., 2013), the Middle Permian Soyana and Kargala localities in Russia (Martynov, 1932; Martynov, 1937; Nel et al., 2012), and the Upper Permian Bodie Creek Head locality in Malvinas Tillyard (1928). Here we describe the new species, Epilestes rasnitsyni sp. nov. from the Ufimian of Perm Territory, which is characterized by specific arrangement of veins in the petiole and the unique preservation of body structures.

**A Gondwanan record of the extinct genus Cretobibio (Diptera: Bibionidae)**

2021-09-10T13:37:55+12:00

A new species of Cretobibio Skartveit & Ansorge, 2020, a genus formerly known only from the Lower Cretaceous of Spain, is described from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil (Crato Formation, upper Aptian). A critical overview of scarce Mesozoic record of the Bibionidae is given.

Long-headed predators in Cretaceous amber—fossil findings of an unusual type of lacewing larva

2021-09-16T16:19:54+12:00

Lacewing larvae (Neuroptera) are known to be fierce predators which are morphologically highly specialised for a raptorial lifestyle. Mandibular-maxillary stylets are characteristic for all larvae of this group; these stylets can be extraordinarily massive. Despite these distinct sucking-piercing stylets, also other extreme features occur in some ingroups, such as an extremely elongated neck. In larvae of thread-winged lacewings (Crocinae) the neck can reach up to about one third of the body length; they are also called ‘long-necked antlions’. Even though the larvae of living neuropteran species show a variety of conspicuous morphologies today, indeed 100 million years ago, in the Cretaceous, Neuroptera seems to have had an even more “experimental phase”. Several larval specimens are known so far especially in Myanmar, Spanish and Lebanese amber from the Cretaceous with unique and unusual character combinations not found in any group living today. We describe here ten new fossil findings of one of these types of larvae with elongated head capsule in Myanmar amber, previously only known from a single specimen. We compared the head shapes of the new specimens with those of 190 specimens of other lacewing larvae and discuss further implications of our findings, especially making functional comparisons with long-necked antlions.

**Redescriptions of beetles of the Notocupes generic complex (Coleoptera: Archostemata: Ommatidae) from the Lower Cretaceous of Buryatia**

2021-09-16T11:29:19+12:00

The term “generic complex” is proposed for 12 previously synonymized fossil genera of Ommatidae. Redescriptions of three species of the genus Notocupes are provided: N. excellens Ponomarenko, 1966, N. caudatus Ponomarenko, 1966 and N. vitimensis Ponomarenko, 1966, as well as a description of an elytron of a new species Zygadenia alexrasnitsyni sp. nov., from the Lower Cretaceous locality Baissa (Vitim River headwaters, Eastern Transbaikalia). The descriptions contain selected morphological characters that will be used in future redescriptions.

**Discovery of a new genus and species of Dryinidae (Hymenoptera: Chrysidoidea) from Kachin (Myanmar) amber: Rasnitsynum burmense gen. et sp. nov.**

2021-09-20T12:41:34+12:00

Dryinidae (Hymenoptera: Chrysidoidea) are parasitoids, and often also predators, of leafhoppers, planthoppers and treehoppers (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha) (Guglielmino et al., 2013; Olmi et al., 2020b). Fossils of Dryinidae are known both as inclusions in amber and as compression fossils (Perkovsky et al., 2019; Olmi et al., 2010, 2020b; Martynova et al., 2020). Among the amber deposits, those situated in Myanmar are the richest. Mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber from Kachin State is known in fact to include Dryinidae belonging to the following subfamilies and genera: Anteoninae: Burmanteon Engel, 2003 (one species); Burmadryininae: Burmadryinus Olmi, Xu & Guglielmino, 2014 (one species); Dryininae: Dryinus Latreille, 1804 (12 species) (Martynova et al., 2020); Hybristodryinus Engel, 2005 (17 species) (Perkovsky et al., 2019; Tribull et al., 2020; Olmi et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2021); Pseudodryinus Olmi, 1991 (one species); Palaeoanteoninae: Palaeoanteon Olmi, 2000 (one species) (Perkovsky et al., 2020a); Raptodryininae: Raptodryinus Olmi, Perkovsky, Martynova, Contarini, Bückle, Guglielmino, 2020 (one species).

**A new species of the fossil genus Electrotrichia (Insecta: Trichoptera: Hydroptilidae) from Rovno amber (Zhytomyr region, Olevsk locality)**

2021-09-15T14:05:26+12:00

Recent discoveries of amber deposits have resulted in numerous new caddisfly species of Rovno amber described in a series of recent papers (Melnitsky & Ivanov, 2010, 2013, 2016a, b). The list of species previously known from Rovno amber included 42 species (Ivanov et al., 2016; Perkovsky, 2017). Our study is based on a collection of Trichoptera from a new Rovno amber locality near Olevsk in Zhytomyr region. Nine amber species have been reported from this region (Legalov et al., 2021; Radchenko et al., 2021), including new ant species, a new anthribid, two new genera, and four new species of gall midges (Fedotova & Perkovsky, 2015, 2017); additional new cicadellid genus and species is described from closely connected fauna of Perebrody (Dietrich et al., 2021). It total, the new collection includes 6 pieces of Rovno Amber with six specimens of Trichoptera, two of those are described below as a new species of Electrotrichia.

**Re-description of the Cretaceous wasp Humiryssus leucus Lin, 1980 (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea: Baissidae)**

2021-09-14T12:16:51+12:00

Humiryssus Lin, 1980 is a Cretaceous genus with Humiryssus leucus Lin, 1980 as its type species established based on a tiny wasp from the Lower Cretaceous (Hauterivian-Barremian) Laocun Formation at Laocun, Jiande, Zhejiang Province, eastern China and originally placed in the extinct family Paroryssidae (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinoidea) (Lin, 1980). It was later treated jointly with the genus Manlaya Rasnitsyn, 1980 (Evanioidea: Gasteruptiidae: Baissinae) because the characters shown in the line drawing by Lin (1980) indicate a close relationship of the genus to Manlaya (Rasnitsyn et al., 1998). However, Zhang & Rasnitsyn (2004) considered it to be a separate genus within the Baissinae, which is now considered as an independent family under the Evanioidea (e.g., Li et al., 2018; Jouault et al., 2020, 2021).

**A new mayfly species Triassodotes rasnitsyni sp. nov. of the family Misthodotidae Tillyard, 1932 (Insecta; Ephemerida, Permoplectoptera) from the Triassic deposits of Kuzbass, Russia**

2021-09-20T15:10:29+12:00

The mayfly sister group family Misthodotidae Tillyard, 1932 includes two genera: Misthodotes Sellards, 1909 and Triassodotes Sinitshenkova & Papier, 2005. Misthodotes species have so far been known only from the Permian, six Early Permian species have been described from North America (Carpenter, 1933, 1979; Tillyard, 1932, 1936), one from Germany (Kinzelbach & Lutz, 1984) and two from the Perm region of Russia (Tshernova, 1965). Only three species are known from the Upper Permian deposits: two from the famous Isady locality in the Vologda Region of Russia (Sinitshenkova, 2013; Sinitshenkova & Vassilenko, 2012) and one from the Urals (Novokshonov et al., 2002). The only Triassodotes species was found in the Middle Triassic Grès à Voltzia deposits in France (Sinitshenkova et al., 2005).

A new genus of the family Alexarasniidae (Insecta: Embiida) from the Triassic of Kyrgyzstan

2021-09-13T12:47:34+12:00

The Recent webspinners (Embiida = Embioptera) comprise a small order of insects; there are about 400 species distributed mainly in tropical and subtropical regions (Miller et al., 2012). They are gregarious, living subsocially in galleries of fine silk which they spin from glands on their forelegs (Edgerly et al., 2002). The webspinner lineage is traceable back via Middle Cretaceous Sorellembiidae, Jurassic Sinembiidae and Late Permian–Triassic Alexarasniidae to the Early–Middle Permian Atactophlebiidae (Engel & Grimaldi, 2006; Huang & Nel, 2009; Shcherbakov, 2015).

Aleksiana rasnitsyni gen. et sp. nov. (Diptera, Limoniidae) to honour Alexandr Rasnitsyn

2021-09-16T11:08:53+12:00

The family Limoniidae is the most speciose family of the infraorder Tipulomorpha, as well as one of the largest families of nematoceran Diptera. The oldest known representative of Limoniidae is Architipula youngi Krzemiński, 1992 described from the Upper Triassic of North America (ca. 208 Ma) belonging to the subfamily Architipulinae (Krzemiński, 1992). The subfamily Limoniinae (Limoniidae) stratigraphic range extends from the Lower Cretaceous Lebanese amber (Kania et al., 2014) to the present day, and is divided into two tribes, namely Antochini and Limoniini Savchenko (1985). Antochini currently comprise of the following contemporary genera: Antocha Alexander, 1924 (represented by 160 species); Elliptera Schiner, 1863 (represented by 12 species); Orimarga Osten-Sacken, 1869 (represented by 150 species) and Thaumastoptera Mik, 1866 (represented by 11 species). Representatives of this tribe currently occur on all continents except Antarctica, but individual genera are not distributed uniformly throughout the world (Oosterbroek, 2021). Although the family Limoniidae has been known since the Upper Triassic (Krzemińska & Krzemiński, 2003), the oldest representative of the tribe Antochini is only known from the beginning of the Upper Cretaceous from the Burmese amber from Kachin (Podenas & Poinar, 2009) dated to ca. 99 Ma (Shi et al., 2012).

**A new biting midge of the genus Forcipomyia Meigen, 1818 from Miocene Ethiopian amber (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)**

2021-09-13T15:55:48+12:00

Biting midges (Ceratopogonidae) are a relatively well-studied family of nematocerous flies distributed worldwide, including 6,206 extant and 296 fossil species. To date, 1,146 extant and 32 fossil species in the genus Forcipomyia have been recorded in the world (Borkent & Dominiak, 2020). Biting midges of the subgenus Forcipomyia s. str. are indicative of forests because their larvae and pupae usually live under the bark of rotting trees (Szadziewski, 2018). The oldest records of the genus are from the Eocene. Forcipomyia are reported from early Eocene Fushun amber (one species; Hong, 1981; Stebner et al., 2016; Szadziewski, 2018; Krzemiński et al., 2019), early Eocene Cambay amber (unnamed, Stebner et al., 2017), middle Eocene Sakhalin amber (one species, Szadziewski & Sontag, 2013), Eocene Baltic amber from the Gulf of Gdańsk, Rovno and Bitterfeld (21 species; Szadziewski, 1988, Szadziewski, 1993, Sontag & Szadziewski, 2011), Miocene Dominican amber (10 species, Szadziewski & Grogan, 1998) and Miocene Mexican amber (unnamed, Szadziewski & Grogan, 1996).

Special issue of “The 85^th anniversary of Professor Alexandr P. Rasnitsyn” Part I (Front matter)

2021-09-21T16:45:39+12:00

On the 85^th anniversary of Alexandr Rasnitsyn

2021-09-21T17:32:42+12:00

This issue of Palaeoentomology is dedicated to the foremost Russian entomologist, palaeontologist, and evolutionary biologist, Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn, who will be 85 on September 24 this year. The authors and those numerous colleagues, who could not, for various reasons, participate, wish a happy birthday to the undisputed worldwide leader of palaeoentomology!

Alik Rasnitsyn, nearly 70 years together and apart

2021-09-20T15:52:42+12:00

Of course, I have known for a long time that one has to call him by his full name, Alexandr Pavlovich, yet for me and a great many other people he remains Alik—despite the fact that I have never heard of anyone having ever questioned his scientific or moral authority. The following text is not a portrait or even a biography of A.P. Rasnitsyn, but merely what I have managed to put together from my recollections in defiance of my dementia. I am stuck in the country and cannot check basic facts about Alik, so, if I have forgotten or mixed up something, please forgive me.

Palaeoentomology

A new leafhopper (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) from late Eocene Rovno amber described based on an adult and associated last-instar nymph from Perebrody (Ukraine)

New species of Kamopanorpa Martynov from the Permian of South Siberia with comments on the systematic position of Microptysmatidae (Protomeropina = Permotrichoptera)

A new species of the ʻprotozygopteranʼ damselfly (Odonata: Permagrionidae) from the Lower-Middle Permian of Russia

A Gondwanan record of the extinct genus Cretobibio (Diptera: Bibionidae)

Long-headed predators in Cretaceous amber—fossil findings of an unusual type of lacewing larva

Redescriptions of beetles of the Notocupes generic complex (Coleoptera: Archostemata: Ommatidae) from the Lower Cretaceous of Buryatia

Discovery of a new genus and species of Dryinidae (Hymenoptera: Chrysidoidea) from Kachin (Myanmar) amber: Rasnitsynum burmense gen. et sp. nov.

A new species of the fossil genus Electrotrichia (Insecta: Trichoptera: Hydroptilidae) from Rovno amber (Zhytomyr region, Olevsk locality)

Re-description of the Cretaceous wasp Humiryssus leucus Lin, 1980 (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea: Baissidae)

A new mayfly species Triassodotes rasnitsyni sp. nov. of the family Misthodotidae Tillyard, 1932 (Insecta; Ephemerida, Permoplectoptera) from the Triassic deposits of Kuzbass, Russia