Original paper
A new species of genus Probaisselcana (Orthoptera: Elcanidae) from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber of northern Myanmar
Zhou, Yaru; Xu, Chunpeng; Fang, Yan; Xiao, Chuantao; Beutel, Rolf G.
Palaeontographica Abteilung A Band 329 Lieferung 1-2 (2024), p. 19 - 32
63 references
published: Dec 5, 2024
published online: Nov 13, 2024
manuscript accepted: Oct 28, 2024
manuscript received: Jun 12, 2024
Abstract
The incompleteness of compression fossils greatly impedes the reconstruction of morphological features, especially in the case of extinct groups, for instance the orthopteran family †Elcanidae. Herein we describe a new species of †Elcanidae, †Probaisselcana kachinensis sp. nov., from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber with well-preserved morphological features. The assignment to the genus is mainly based on wing venation. It can be distinguished from other species of †Probaisselcana by its extremely slender, straight and needle-shaped ovipositor. The new species provides information on the ovipositor in the extinct family, with two distinctive types found in females of different species, short and sickle-shaped versus long and needle-shaped. This demonstrates different ecological specialization of the egg-laying apparatus, including depositing of eggs in bark or bark crevices, or alternatively in soil.
Keywords
Cretaceous • Insecta • †Elcanidae • taxonomy • bark oviposition • soil oviposition