Lebanoraphidia
Lebanoraphidia | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Raphidioptera |
Family: | †Mesoraphidiidae |
Genus: | †Lebanoraphidia |
Species: | †L. nana
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Binomial name | |
†Lebanoraphidia nana Bechly & Wolf-Schwenninger, 2011
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Lebanoraphidia is an
History and classification
Lebanoraphidia nana is known only from two fossils, the holotype, specimen number SMNS LB-235-2, and the paratype, number SMNS LB-235-1, both of which are housed in the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany. The specimens consist of partially complete adult insects with the holotype being of unidentified sex and the paratype being female. The specimens are preserved in transparent chunks of amber which have been embedded in artificial blocks of resin for study. The fossils were recovered from the outcrops of upper Neocomian rocks dating to about 130 million years old and yielding amber produced by Kauri pines. The outcrops are in the area of Jezzine in southern Lebanon. Lebanoraphidia was first studied by the paleoentomologists Günter Bechly and Karin Wolf-Schwenninger, both of the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart. Their 2011 type description of the new genus and species was published in the entomology journal Insect Systematics & Evolution.[1] The genus name Lebanoraphidia was coined by the researchers as a combination of the snakefly genus Raphidia and "Lebano" which is in reference to the country of Lebanon where the genus was found.[1] The specific epithet nana is taken from the Greek word "nanos" meaning dwarf.[1] The name is a reference to the minute size of the adults. Lebanoraphidia nana is one of four described snakefly genera placed into the tribe Nanoraphidiini and the smallest described to date. The other three genera are Grimaldiraphidia, Cantabroraphidia, and the type genus Nanoraphidia.[1]
Description
The holotype specimen is an adult of unidentified sex due to the specimen missing all parts below the thorax. The paratype female is also incomplete, with the head missing, a white "slimy" growth along the abdomen and the thorax crushed. Overall the head capsule for the species is generally rhombohedral in outline with
References
- ^ doi:10.1163/187631211X568164. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2014-03-05.
- PMID 22787417.