The Mesozoic family Mesopsychidae Tillyard, 1917 presently consists of seven described genera and 13 species from the mid-Triassic to the Early Cretaceous of Australia, South Africa and Eurasia. In the present paper o...The Mesozoic family Mesopsychidae Tillyard, 1917 presently consists of seven described genera and 13 species from the mid-Triassic to the Early Cretaceous of Australia, South Africa and Eurasia. In the present paper one new genus and three new species of fossil mesopsychids are described that add significant distributional and stratigraphic extensions to the family. This finding documents the first formal record of fossil Mesopsychidae in China. Both Lichnomesopsyche gloriae gen. et sp. nov. and L. daohugouensis gen. et sp. nov. were found from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Inner Mongolia, whereas Vitimopsyche kozlovi sp. nov., of mid Early Cretaceous age, was collected from the Jehol Biota of northern Hebei Province. This new, wellpreserved material from China reveals complete and previously unknown body features, including head, antennae, mouthparts, legs and abdomen. The delicate and long proboscides of these new taxa indicate that they were feeding on externally exposed, nutrient-rich fluids of gymnospermous ovulate fructifications, and incapable of piercing surface epidermis - attributable principally to the absence of stylets. These proboscides originated, perhaps multiply, among basal Mecoptera and are functionally and structurally convergent with equivalent mouthparts borne by fossil and extant Diptera, Lepidoptera, Neuroptera and Coleoptera.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.40872022)the Nature Science Foundation of Beijing(No.5082002)Scientific Research Key Program and PHR Project of Beijing Municipal Commission of Education
文摘The Mesozoic family Mesopsychidae Tillyard, 1917 presently consists of seven described genera and 13 species from the mid-Triassic to the Early Cretaceous of Australia, South Africa and Eurasia. In the present paper one new genus and three new species of fossil mesopsychids are described that add significant distributional and stratigraphic extensions to the family. This finding documents the first formal record of fossil Mesopsychidae in China. Both Lichnomesopsyche gloriae gen. et sp. nov. and L. daohugouensis gen. et sp. nov. were found from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Inner Mongolia, whereas Vitimopsyche kozlovi sp. nov., of mid Early Cretaceous age, was collected from the Jehol Biota of northern Hebei Province. This new, wellpreserved material from China reveals complete and previously unknown body features, including head, antennae, mouthparts, legs and abdomen. The delicate and long proboscides of these new taxa indicate that they were feeding on externally exposed, nutrient-rich fluids of gymnospermous ovulate fructifications, and incapable of piercing surface epidermis - attributable principally to the absence of stylets. These proboscides originated, perhaps multiply, among basal Mecoptera and are functionally and structurally convergent with equivalent mouthparts borne by fossil and extant Diptera, Lepidoptera, Neuroptera and Coleoptera.
