Basal Cyclorrhapha In Amber From The Cretaceous And Tertiary (Insecta: Diptera), And Their Relationships: Brachycera In Cretaceous Amber Part Ix David A. Grimaldi
Author
Grimaldi, David A.
Division of Invertebrate Zoology American Museum of Natural History, New York
text
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
2018
2018-10-24
2018
423
1
97
http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.1206/0003-0090-423.1.1
journal article
7631
10.1206/0003-0090-423.1.1
2e886aea-b59a-45a6-aeaa-2427d584a894
0003-0090
4613008
Prosyrphus
,
new genus
DIAGNOSIS: (male only). Extensively holoptic; arista dorsal; mouthparts small, clypeus minute; scutum and scutellum with numerous scattered setulae, two pairs of prescutellar dorsocentral setae, notopleural setae, four pairs scutellar setae. Vein r-m at level of Sc apex; M with short apical fork, M
1
not connected to R
4+5
; dm and cup cells very large; alula small; spurious vein and sc-r lacking; male abdominal segments 6–8 very asymmetrical, epandrium to left side, sternite 8 terminal and bulbous.
TYPE
SPECIES
:
P. thompsoni
,
n. sp.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin
pro
- (“first, before”), in reference to the stem-group position of the fossil among
Syrphidae
.
COMMENTS:
Prosyrphus
is a stem-group
Syrphidae
(fig. 51). It has a large cell bm (~⅓ length of wing), apex of CuA
1
incomplete (not reaching the wing margin), cell cup large, and male genitalia that are very asymmetrical with a bulbous, terminal sternite 8 (among other genitalic features). Based on the unique male, features of the frons (e.g., lack of macrosetae) cannot be determined. Moreover, the body is stout and short; wing shape broad and apically tapered, the body overall with few macrosetae, and the mesal surface of the pedicel has a tonguelike lobe inserted into the basal flagellomere, features consistent with many modern syrphids.
Prosyrphus
lacks synapomorphies of crowngroup
Syrphidae
, namely: a large alula, sc-r and spurious veins, M
1
curved upward to meet R
4+5
preapically; M
2
lost (or at most a spur on the curvature of M
1
). Kovalev (1979) reported a fragmentary specimen of a syrphid or syrphoid in Late Cretaceous Siberian amber, but the characters are too few for a definitive attribution, and it may no longer be available for study since many of the Siberian amber specimens at the Paleontological Institute in
Moscow
have disintegrated. Otherwise,
Prosyrphus
appears to be the most derived dipteran known from the Mesozoic, although I predict that syrphids more derived than
Prosyrphus
will eventually be found in the Late Cretaceous, especially in the Maastrichtian and Campanian.