A Triassic fossil of scorpion fly from Mine, Japan

8 Pages·1991·0.74 MB·

Bull.Kitakyushu Mus.Nat.Hist.,10: 99-103. March 31, 1991
A Triassic fossil ofscorpion fly from Mine, Japan
Kyoichiro Ueda
Kitakyushu Museum ofNatural History, Nishihonmachi 3-6-1
Yahatahigashiku, Kitakyushu805,Japan
(Received September 17,1990)
Abstract A new speciesof the extinct mecopterous genus Orlhophlebia Westwood is
described fromOkuhata, Mine City,Japan, the Upper Triassic. It isthe firstrecordof
the genus fromJapan.
Introduction
From the autumn of 1987 to the spring of 1990, the Momonoki Formation
encountered in a new road construction (route 435) and yielded many insect and
plantfossils atOkuhata,MineCity,Yamaguchi Pref., western endofHonshu,Japan.
This research wasmainlydoneby the staffs of MineCity Museumof History and
Folklore (MMHF) and the members of Mine Natural History Society. Mr.
Takayoshi Harada, whoisamember oftheMine Natural History Society andalso
oneofthechiefmembersofKitakyushuNatural History Society, found thisinterest
ingfossil insectin the field research. Hekindlydonated it to Kitakyushu Museum
ofNatural History (KMNH) andgave metheopportunity tostudyit. Before going
further I would like to express my hearty thanks to Mr. T. Harada forhis kindness
above mentioned. Dr. Masamichi Ota, director of KMNH and Mr.J. Aizawa,
Fukuoka University madethedetailed geological mapof thisdistrict, andgave me
manycommentsonthismanuscript. ProfessorT. Saigusa,Kyushu Universityread
thismanuscriptandgavecritical comments. Dr.D.Schlee, Stuttgart Museum fur
Naturkunde, Dr. R. Willmann, Universitat Kiel gave mesome important informa
tion about thespecies and literatures. I amindebted to Dr. I. Fujiyama, Tokyo,
Messrs. A. Fujii,Y. Okazaki andY. Yabumoto, KMNH fortheir useful comments
on geological and palaeontological problems. Messrs.F.Takahashi and H. Ishida
ofMMHF, and E. Doi, Asa kindly helped usduring the field work in many ways.
Dr. S. Asahina, Tokyo kindly lent me his valuable literatures for references. The
staffsofthelibrary oftheNatural History Museum, London andMiss C.Pepermans,
the librarian of Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum, Leiden helped me to cite
important literatures. Dr. T. ShirozuofKMNHencouraged meduring thestudy.
100 Kyoichiro Ueda
Geology
The locality of this fossil insect is at Okuhata in Mine City (Fig. 1), and it
belongs to the Momonoki Formation, Mine Group, Carnian, Upper Triassic (Fu
jiyama, 1973 etc.). AcolumnarsectionofMomonoki Formationat the Okuhatawas
examined by Dr. M. Ota, Messrs. T. Harada andJ. Aizawa, and isshown in fig.2
(Aizawa, 1991).
City
500 m
Fig.1. Amapshowingthelocality(X)forthefossilinsectfromtheMomonokiFormationat
Okuhata, Mine City inYamaguchi Prefecture.
Description
Family Orthophlebiidae
Genus Ortkophlebia Westwood
Orthophlebia haradai sp. nov.
(Plate 1, Fig. 2)
Japanese name: Harada-mukashi-shiriage
ATriassic fossilofscorpionflyfromMine,Japan 101
Sc R.
..--R,
5 mm
Fig.2. OrthophlebiaharadaiUeda, sp.nov.Counterpart offorewing. Length 14mm.
Material. Left fore wing, missing thebasal portion, with counterpart slightly
lacking theapicalportion;totallength14mm,greatestwidth5mm.
Forewingwithoutanycolour-pattern. Humeral veinletpresent nearwing base,
butvery faintly indicated. Sclong, straight without a short veinlet and ending in
costanear the middleofpterostigma. R, at theoriginofRsisabout 1.5timesasfar
from ScasScisfrom costa, andconverging towards Scnearpterostigma; pterostigma
well developted anditsposterior margin runningbetween R,and R2. Rswithseven
branches; R2 3-branched, R3 2-branched; stalkof R» and R5, stem of R3 and all
branches ofR2 allpectinate; the fork ofR3 islonger than the stalk; cross vein present
between posterior forkofR3and R4.
M dividing about middle of wing, with five branches; a cross vein present
between M3 and M4a near wing margin; M5 present at about 1/3between M base
anditsprimary fork. Cut arched from itsorigin, then slightly waved tomcu; Cu2
almost straight and slightly diverging distally from Cu,. 1A slightly waved and
almost straight beyond the middle; 2Asub-parallel to1A butdiverging distally from
it;a middlecrossveinpresentbetween 2Aand3A;3Awithashort basalbranchand
waved.
Holotype: Leftforewing (KMNH IP 000,002).
Locality : Okuhata, Mine City, Yamaguchi Pref,Honshu,Japan.
Momonoki Formation, Mine Group. Carnian, UpperTriassic.
Remarks. Thisfossil insect hasradial sectorwith seven pectinate branches and
its forewing is 14mm in length. The branching point ofR2 and R3 is present
slightly basad than that ofR4 and R5. Moreover the branching patterns of M
(5-branched), Cuand A, and the presence ofpterostigma clearly indicate thatthis
species belongs tothegenusOrthophlebia Westwood, 1845.
102 Kyoichiro Ueda
Judging from the fossil records, the genus Orthophlebia is inferred to have been
rich in species, and rather common fromUpper Trias to Upper Lias in the Northern
Hemisphere (Westwood, 1845;Bode, 1905, 1953;Handlirsch, 1906, 1939;Marty-
nov, 1925, 1927, 1937;Tillyard, 1933; Martynova, 1948 etc.). Willmann (1978)
carefully examined these species and summarized them into 44 species under the
genus Orthophlebia including doubtful and unnamed species. Hong (1985) recorded
Protorthophlebiayaogouensis Hong from the Middle Jurassic ofYuxian county. This
species has six-branched Rs and it may be assigned to the genus Orthophlebia.
Sukatcheva (1985) described seven new species ofthe genus Orthophlebia from the
Jurassic of Siberia and Mongol; 0. lauta, 0. retorrida, 0. latebrosa, 0. mongolica, 0.
martynovae, 0. obunca and 0. jejuna. Therefore 52 species of the genus Orthophlebia
have been described from the Northern Hemisphere. The present new species
haradaiisone ofthe oldest recordofthisgenusand clearlydistinguished from most of
the known species by the two-branched R3in the forewing. The same character-
state ofR3is found in the hindwing of 0. giganteaTillyard and in the forewingof0.
bella Handlirsch, but the former has an additional branch ofR2 (four-branched R2)
and the size islargerthan haradai, and the latteralsohasan additional branchofR2
and the fork ofR3 is shorter than the stalk.
The speciesname isdedicatedto Mr. Takayoshi Harada for his kind arrange
ment to Kitakyushu Museum ofNaturalHistoryon thedonationofthis specimen.
Reference
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Bull. Kitakyushu Mus. Nat. Hist., 10:91-98,figs. 1-4,pis.1-2.
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A Triassic fossil ofscorpion fly from Mine, Japan
Kyoichiro Ueda
Plate 1
Explanation ofPlate 1
Fig. 1. OrthophlebiaharadaiUeda, sp.nov. Holotype, forewing, KMNH
IP 000,002.
Fig.2. Ditto,counterpartofholotype.
Ueda, K. ATriassic fossil ofscorpion flyfromMine,Japan Plate