| Mesochorista proavita Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Mecoptera |
| Family: | † Permochoristidae |
| Genus: | † Mesochorista |
| Species: | †M. proavita |
| Binomial name | |
| †Mesochorista proavita Tillyard, 1916 | |
| Synonyms | |
†Eoses triassica | |
Mesochorista proavita is an extinct species of scorpionfly from the Triassic period of Queensland, Australia. [1]
Specimens of Mesochorista proavita were first described by the English-Australian entomologist Robert John Tillyard in 1916. The fossils were recovered from the Denmark Hill Insect Bed of Queensland, Australia. The type locality belongs to the Blackstone Formation (Ipswich Coal Measures Group) and is dated to the Carnian age (228.0–216.5 million years ago) of the Triassic period. [2]
Specimens of Eoses triassica , sometimes considered a synonym of this species, were discovered in 1945 by the Australian entomologist Norman Tindale from the Mt. Crosby Insect Bed of Queensland, Australia. They are also dated to the Carnian age. [2]
M. proavita belongs to the family Permochoristidae (formerly Mesochoristidae) of the scorpionflies (order Mecoptera). [2] [3]
E.F. Riek synonymized Eoses triassica with M. proavita in 1955, regarding it as a second specimen. In doing so, he identified the fossil as a mecopteran rather than a lepidopteran as it was originally described as. [4] [1] Citing morphological differences in wing venation and publishing errors, Norman B. Tindale challenged this conclusion in 1980. He maintains that the three known specimens of Eoses triassica belong to the lepidopteran family Eocoronidae. [5]
Mecoptera is an order of insects in the superorder Holometabola with about six hundred species in nine families worldwide. Mecopterans are sometimes called scorpionflies after their largest family, Panorpidae, in which the males have enlarged genitals raised over the body that look similar to the stingers of scorpions, and long beaklike rostra. The Bittacidae, or hangingflies, are another prominent family and are known for their elaborate mating rituals, in which females choose mates based on the quality of gift prey offered to them by the males. A smaller group is the snow scorpionflies, family Boreidae, adults of which are sometimes seen walking on snowfields. In contrast, the majority of species in the order inhabit moist environments in tropical locations.
The Caelifera are a suborder of orthopteran insects. They include the grasshoppers and grasshopper-like insects, as well as other superfamilies classified with them: the ground-hoppers (Tetrigoidea) and pygmy mole crickets (Tridactyloidea). The latter should not be confused with the mole crickets (Gryllotalpidae), which belong to the other Orthopteran sub-order Ensifera.
Bittacidae is a family of scorpionflies commonly called hangingflies or hanging scorpionflies.
The Choristidae are a small family of scorpionflies known only from Australia. Their larvae are found in moss mats.
Stagonolepis is an extinct genus of stagonolepidid aetosaur known from the Late Triassic Hassberge Formation of Germany, the Drawno Beds of Poland, and the Lossiemouth Sandstone of Scotland. Supposed fossils from North and South America have been placed into their own genera, Calyptosuchus and Aetosauroides, respectively.
Permotanyderus is an extinct genus of protodipteran insect of the Permotanyderidae family, first described by Edgar F. Riek in Australia in 1953 and which contains a single species P. ableptus.
Pannaulika triassica is a prehistoric plant species described in 1993 on the basis of a small, incomplete leaf and two "flowers". It has been considered either to be a very early flowering plant or, more recently, an aberrant fern.
The Blackstone Formation is a geologic formation of the Ipswich Coal Measures Group in southeastern Queensland, Australia, dating to the Carnian to Norian stages of the Late Triassic. The shales, siltstones, coal and tuffs were deposited in a lacustrine environment. The Blackstone Formation contains the Denmark Hill Insect Bed.
The Cow Branch Formation is a Late Triassic geologic formation in Virginia and North Carolina in the eastern United States. The formation consists of cyclical beds of black and grey lacustrine (lake) mudstone and shale. It is a konservat-lagerstätte renowned for its exceptionally preserved insect fossils, along with small reptiles, fish, and plants. Dinosaur tracks have also been reported from the formation.
The Lepidoptera fossil record encompasses all butterflies and moths that lived before recorded history. The fossil record for Lepidoptera is lacking in comparison to other winged species, and tending not to be as common as some other insects in the habitats that are most conducive to fossilization, such as lakes and ponds, and their juvenile stage has only the head capsule as a hard part that might be preserved. Yet there are fossils, some preserved in amber and some in very fine sediments. Leaf mines are also seen in fossil leaves, although the interpretation of them is tricky. Putative fossil stem group representatives of Amphiesmenoptera are known from the Triassic.
Eocorona is an extinct genus of amphiesmenopteran from the Middle Triassic of Australia. It contains only one species, Eocorona iani, and is the type genus of the family Eocoronidae.
Eocoronidae is an extinct family of insects from the Carnian age of the Triassic period. It was established in 1981 by the Australian entomologist Norman Tindale. At present, it contains only one species and genus: Eocorona iani.
Palaeontinidae, commonly known as giant cicadas, is an extinct family of cicadomorphs. They existed from the Late Triassic to the Early Cretaceous. The family contains around 30 to 40 genera and around a hundred species.
The Denmark Hill Insect Bed is a Triassic fossil locality in the Denmark Hill Conservation Park of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia.
The Madygen Formation is a Middle–Late Triassic (Ladinian–Carnian) geologic formation and lagerstätte in the Batken and Osh Regions of western Kyrgyzstan, with minor outcrops in neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The conglomerates, sandstones and mudstones of the 560 m (1,840 ft) thick formation were deposited in terrestrial lacustrine, alluvial, fluvial and deltaic environments.
The Hassberge Formation is a geologic formation in Bavaria, Germany. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carnian stage of the Triassic period.
Holcorpa is a genus of extinct insects in the scorpionfly order Mecoptera. Two Eocene age species found in Western North America were placed into the genus, H. dillhoffi and H. maculosa.
Mesopsychidae is an extinct family of scorpionflies known from the Late Permian to Mid Cretaceous. It is part of Mesopsychoidea, a group of scorpionflies with siphonate proboscis. They are suggested to have been nectarivores, feeding off the liquid pollination drops and acting as pollinators for now extinct insect pollinated gymnosperms such as Bennettitales.
Austropanorpa is an extinct genus of scorpionfly. It is the only member of the family Austropanorpidae. The type species, A. australis was described by Edgar Riek in 1952 based on two incomplete forewings from the Redbank Plains Formation of Queensland, of probable Eocene age, and was assigned to Panorpidae. Later, it was recognised as distinctive enough to be assigned to its own monotypic family by Rainer Willman in 1977. In 2018 the species "Orthophlebia" martynovae from the Early Jurassic (Toarcian) aged Cheremkhovo Formation near Lake Baikal in Siberia, described by Irina Sukacheva in 1985, was recognised as belonging to the genus. The genus is distinguished from other mecopterans by having nine branched radial sectors and four veins in the medial sector of both wings, as opposed to living panorpoids which are typically 5 and rarely 6 branched.
Geinitziidae is an extinct family of polyneopteran insects, known from the Permian to Cretaceous. They are currently considered to be members "Grylloblattida" a poorly defined group of extinct insects thought to be related to modern ice crawlers (Grylloblattidae). Other authors place them in the extinct order Reculida. Unlike modern ice crawlers, which are wingless, they had large wings, bearing a superficial resemblance to cockroaches, and are thought to have been day-active above ground predators.
