Cascoplecia

Cascoplecia Temporal range: Late Aptian to Early Cenomanian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
holotype fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Superfamily:	Bibionoidea
Family:	Bibionidae
Genus:	† Cascoplecia Poinar, 2010
Species:	†C. insolitis
Binomial name
†Cascoplecia insolitis Poinar, 2010

Cascoplecia insolitis, rarely known as the unicorn fly, ^[1] is an extinct dipteran that lived in the Cretaceous. The type specimen was found in Burmese amber. ^[1] George Poinar Jr., who described the fossil, placed the genus into a new family Cascopleciidae. One of the defining characteristics of Cascoplecia is the presence of three ocelli raised on an extended, horn-like protuberance. The distinctiveness of the family was questioned by other authors, and the genus has been subsequently transferred to the family Bibionidae. ^{[2] [3]}

reconstruction

References

1. Poinar Jr., George (2010). "Cascoplecia insolitis (Diptera: Cascopleciidae), a new family, genus, and species of flower-visiting, unicorn fly (Bibionomorpha) in Early Cretaceous Burmese amber". Cretaceous Research. 31 (1): 71–76. Bibcode:2010CrRes..31...71P. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2009.09.007.
2. Thomas Pape, Vladimir Blagoderov & Mikhail B. Mostovski. 2011 Order DIPTERA Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness.
3. Li, L.; Skibińska, K.; Krzemiński, W.; Wang, B.; Xiao, C.; Zhang, Q. (2021). "A new March fly Protopenthetrius skartveiti gen. nov. et sp. nov.(Diptera, Bibionidae, Plecinae) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber". Cretaceous Research. 104924.