The earliest Mesopsychidae and revision of the family Mesopanorpodidae (Mecoptera)

Abstract

The family Mesopanorpodidae is revised. Most taxa referred to this family are not related to the type genus Mesopanorpodes Tillyard, 1918. The type species of the latter, Mesopanorpodes wianamattensis,is closely related to Mesopsyche Tillyard, 1917. Therefore Mesopanorpodes is transferred to Mesopsychidae Tillyard, 1917 (= Mesopanorpodidae Tillyard, 1918, syn. n.).The earliest Mesopsychidae are described from the Upper Permian of European Russia (Severodvinian; Isady locality, Vologda Province): Permopsyche issadensisgen. etsp. n. (type species) and Permopsyche rasnitsynisp. n. Two species described under Mesopanorpodes from the Upper Permian of Australia are also included into Permopsyche: Permopsyche belmontensis (Riek, 1953), comb. n., Permopsyche robustus (Riek, 1953) comb. n. The first pre-Triassic Mesopsyche, Mesopsyche incompletasp. n. is described from the uppermost Permian (the town of Vyazniki, Vladimir Province). Bittacopanorpa javorskii Zalessky, 1935 from the uppermost Permian or basal Triassic of Kuznetsk Basin is identified as a hindwing of Mesopsyche: Mesopsyche javorskii (Zalessky, 1935) comb. n. The origin, evolutionary history, and stratigraphic occurrence of Mesopsychidae are discussed.

Keywords: Bittacopanorpa; Mesopanorpodes; Mesopsyche; Mesopsychidae; Permian; Permopsyche; Triassic; new taxa; revision.

Figure 1.

Wings of Mesopanorpodes and Mesopsyche, for comparison A photograph of Mesopanorpodes wianamattensis Tillyard (position of CuA base marked with arrow) B Mesopanorpodes wianamattensis, line drawing (orig.) C Mesopanorpodes belmontensis: from Riek (1953) D Mesopanorpodes robustus:from Riek (1953) E Mesopsyche triareolata Tillyard (= Aristopsyche superba Tillyard): from Tillyard, 1919a F Mesopsyche dobrokhotovae Novokshonov, modified after Novokshonov (1997c). Not to scale.

Figure 2.

Permopsyche issadensis gen. et sp. n. A–B photographs of the holotype, under different illumination C line drawing of holotype.

Figure 3.

Photographs of forewings of Permopsyche issadensis gen. et sp. n. A paratype PIN, no. 3840/717; B paratype PIN, no. 3840/1354 C paratype PIN, no. 3840/1355 D paratype PIN, no. 3840/1357. All except D reversed left-right.

Figure 4.

Line drawings of paratypes of Permopsyche issadensis gen. et sp. n. showing the variability of venation and wing size A PIN, no. 3840/718 B PIN, no. 3840/719 C PIN, no. 3840/105 D PIN, no. 3840/1357 E PIN, no. 3840/1352 F PIN, no. 3840/1354 G PIN, no. 3840/728 H PIN, no. 3840/729. All to the same scale.

Figure 5.

Correlation between wing size and structure of connection between CuA and MP in Permopsyche issadensis, based on Table 1; see text for explanation.

Figure 6. Hindwings ofPermopsyche issadensis gen. et sp. n. A–B paratype PIN, no. 3840/1381, photograph and line drawing C–D paratype PIN, no. 3840/1382 C details of cubito-anal structure D line drawing of hindwing A, C reversed left-right.

Figure 7.

A–D forewings of Permopsyche rasnitsyni gen. et sp. n. A–B photograph of holotype, PIN, no. 3840/1351, part and counterpart C line drawing of holotype, PIN, no. 3840/1351 D line drawing of paratype, PIN, no. 3840/1363 E–F Permopsyche sp., photograph and line drawing of specimen PIN, no. 3840/1556.

Figure 8.

A–F, wings of Mesopsyche incompleta sp. n. A–B holotype PIN, no. 5103/286, hindwing, photograph and line drawing C–D paratype PIN, no. 5103/122, forewing, photograph and line drawing E–F paratype PIN, no. 5103/123, forewing, photograph and line drawing G–H Mesopsyche javorskii (Zalessky) comb. n., holotype hindwing, photograph (by D. Shcherbakov) and line drawing (orig.), not to scale A, C, G reversed left-right.