A new family and genus of Mesozoic Simulioidea (Insecta: Diptera)

Abstract

Simulioidea are extremely rare in the fossil record of the Mesozoic, when members of Culicomorpha originated. Based on numerous compressions from the Cretaceous of Asia (Khasurty and Baissa, Western Transbaikalia and Gurvan-Ereny-Nuruu, Mongolia) a new monotypic family, Kaluginamyiidae fam. nov., is described. Members of the new family bear a marked resemblance to Simuliidae, but lack many of the synapomorphies ascribed to that family, including: eye of male with a line of discontinuity between large upper facets and small lower facets, hind basitarsus laterally flattened and ventrally keeled, tergite I of abdomen with posterior fringe of long hairs, a single large spermatheca, and probably claw of male with dorsal grooved lobes. Most of these features are known to be present in previously described Mesozoic black flies. Other characters of the new family, such as the basal shift of crossvein r-m and elongation of Rs and the M1 + 2 fork, are typical of Thaumaleidae; however, the extremely long Rs, originating at the level of the humeral crossvein, is unique in the new family. The new family also exhibits a suite of plesiomorphic characters previously unknown in Simulioidea; namely, a long antenna with 12 flagellomeres and both CuP and A1 thick and subparallel. Some features of the new family, such as shortening of the maxillary palp (at least in the male) and sigmoid pleural suture on the thorax are unknown in Culicomorpha. However, such features are common in basal lineages of certain Bibionomorpha (Anisopodidae: Mycetobiinae and Scatopsoidea). These peculiarities notwithstanding, the overall gestalt of the fossils, the small antennal pedicel in both sexes, the absence of ocelli, the general shape and venation of the wing point to a close (perhaps sister-group) relationship with simuliids.http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B9146FC4-5C19-4706-8CE3-C41993A90E4C