Biological Inclusions in Amber from the Paleogene Chickaloon Formation of Alaska
Author
Grimaldi, David A.
Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, New York.
Author
Sunderlin, David
Department of Geology & Environmental Geosciences, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.
Author
Aaroe, Georgene A.
Department of Geology & Environmental Geosciences, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.
Author
Dempsky, Michelle R.
Department of Geology & Environmental Geosciences, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.
Author
Parker, Nancy E.
Department of Geology & Environmental Geosciences, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.
Author
Tillery, George Q.
Department of Geology & Environmental Geosciences, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.
Author
White, Jaclyn G.
Department of Geology & Environmental Geosciences, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.
Author
Barden, Phillip
Department of Biology, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark.
Author
Nascimbene, Paul C.
Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, New York.
Author
Williams, Christopher J.
Department of Earth & Environment, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
text
American Museum Novitates
2018
2018-09-28
2018
3908
1
37
http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.1206/3908.1
journal article
5843
10.1206/3908.1
2fc56743-3f64-4d91-9433-d5fe41fd7d1d
0003-0082
4598569
CHIRONOMIDAE (MIDGES)
Figures 7E
,
14
A−D
AMNH WH-3: A complete male nonbiting midge (
Chironomidae
) (body length
1.60 mm
), preserved adjacent to a small juvenile spider (fig. 7E). Eyes are bare; pedicel large, subspherical; antenna with long plumosity, apparently having 11 flagellar articles, apical article longest; maxillary palp with four palpomeres, lengths 4> 2 = 3> 1 (fig. 14C). Legs: mesotibia having two bladelike apical spurs (one with fine pectination), apical comb of 11−12 thick, sclerotized, slightly clavate setae (fig. 14D); pretarsal claws simple (untoothed), pulvilli either minute or lost. Wings are very faint, obscuring the venation; no macrotrichia occur on the wing membrane. Male genitalia well preserved: tergite 9 (epandrium) large, shieldlike; gonocoxite large; gonostylus articulating with (not fused to) gonocoxite, bare, flattened and hatchetlike, without discernable apical peg/tooth; pair of inner lobes present, bare; anal point absent (fig. 14A, B).
Chironomidae
have a rich fossil record, partly because the larvae are aquatic and semiaquatic and both adults and larvae are readily fossilized in lacustrine sediments. The oldest
Chironomidae
are Triassic, and they are frequently among the most abundant and diverse winged insects in many deposits of amber, such as Eocene Baltic amber and Late Cretaceous ambers from western
Canada
, New Jersey, and Siberia. The fossil record has been reviewed by
Evenhuis (1994)
. Critical study relies on various microscopic features, and most of the described fossils, done decades to a century ago, require re-description based on modern standards. The male genitalia of the Chickaloon fossil appear most similar to those in the large, widespread subfamily
Tanypodinae
.