Flat-footed Females and Missing Males: A New Genus and Species of Pleciofungivoridae (Diptera: Bibionomorpha) Represents the First Record of the Family from Mid-Cretaceous Kachin Amber |
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| Authors: | ZHANG Qingqing Wieslaw KRZEMINSKI Jan SEVCIK Vladimir BLAGODEROV Agnieszka SOSZYNSKA Kornelia SKIBINSKA |
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| Institution: | 1 Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
2 MEC International Joint Laboratory for Palaeobiology and Palaeoenvironment, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
3 State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China;4 Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, 52551 Kraków, Poland;5 University of Ostrava, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology and Ecology, Chittussiho 10, CZ-71000 Ostrava, Czech Republic;6 National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
7 Natural History Museum, London, UK;8 University of Lodz, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Hydrobiology, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 ?ód?, Poland |
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| Abstract: | A new genus and species, Cretopleciofungivora simpsoni gen. et sp. nov., from the extinct family Pleciofungivoridae (Diptera: Bibionomorpha), is discovered in mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber. Previously, this family was known only from imprints in sedimentary rocks of the Jurassic and the Lower Cretaceous. Discovery of a representative of Pleciofungivoridae in Kachin amber confirms the presence of the family in the Upper Cretaceous. The new species has a unique structure of fore tarsus, with lobed and extended tarsal segments II to IV, a feature hitherto known only in a few species of extant Sciaroidea. Although not particularly rare, the new species is currently known only from female specimens. Possible reasons for this phenomenon, very unusual in Sciaroidea, are briefly discussed, including parthenogenesis as a potentially plausible hypothesis. |
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| Keywords: | fungus gnats Sciaroidea Upper Cretaceous Burmese amber swollen tarsomeres |
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