Early Eocene snakeflies (Raphidioptera) of western North America from the Okanagan Highlands and Green River Formation
Author
Archibald, S. Bruce
0000-0002-4397-2497
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, V 5 A 1 S 6, Canada. https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 4397 - 2497 & Museum of Comparative Zoology, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States of America & Royal British Columbia Museum, 675 Belleville Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V 8 W 9 W 2, Canada
Author
Makarkin, Vladimir N.
Federal Scientific Centre of the East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivo-
text
Zootaxa
2021
2021-04-01
4951
1
41
79
journal article
7413
10.11646/zootaxa.4951.1.2
d7a40f10-4145-499c-97be-3f9bc5088d2f
1175-5326
4655625
557825A0-714A-426A-917F-1C9AB7372C30
Raphidiidae
genus and species indet.
Fig. 19
Material.
F-982, collected by unknown person, unknown date, deposited in the
TRU
collections. A nearly complete body mostly preserved in dorso-lateral aspect and head in dorsal aspect, with very poorly preserved and fragmentary wings.
Type
locality and horizon.
Hoodoo Face
beds,
McAbee
,
British Columbia
,
Canada
; early
Eocene
(Ypresian)
.
Description.
Body approximately
17–18 mm
long. Head clearly narrowed posteriorly,
4.2 mm
long (including mandibles),
1.9 mm
maximum width (dorsal view); mostly appearing black with pale patches (probably post-mortem artefact), anterior part (clypeus, labrum, mandibles) paler, brownish. Mandibles with long sub-apical tooth. Ocelli not detected. Antennae approximately
4 mm
long. Prothorax dark brown, relatively short, approximately
3 mm
long (0.17–0.18 body length),
0.9 mm
maximum width (lateral view); pterothorax dark-brown to black (details not discernible). All legs pale-brownish or dark yellowish, covered with short setae. Most segments of abdomen dark, easily distinguished; genital segments very poorly preserved, not allowing sex determination.
Wings only fragmentarily preserved, venation indistinct.
Remarks.
The specimen is assigned to
Raphidiidae
by its head clearly narrowed posteriorly, while those of
Inocelliidae
are always broad with mostly parallel sides. It is difficult to determine its generic and species affinity; however, it is probably not conspecific with the other species known from McAbee,
Megaraphidia antiquissima
, whose prothorax is relatively longer (0.20–0.23 body length). Prothorax length does not, however, separate it from
M. ootsa
from Driftwood Canyon, which has similar colouration and head shape, but these often occur in extant species of various genera, and so are not especially informative. They do, however, clearly differ in
M. hopkinsi
from One Mile Creek.