Elsevier

Palaeoworld

Volume 30, Issue 2, June 2021, Pages 296-310
Palaeoworld

The oldest giant lacewings (Neuroptera: Kalligrammatidae) from the Lower Jurassic of Germany

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palwor.2020.07.001Get rights and content

Abstract

We describe the oldest Kalligrammatidae, two distantly related species of different subfamilies from the Lower Jurassic (lower Toarcian) of Germany: Liassopsychops curvatus Bode, 1953, sit. nov. (Liassopsychopinae n. subfam.) and Ophtalmogramma klopschari n. gen. n. sp. (Kallihemerobiinae). They lived in warm and relatively dry conditions. Subfamily Liassopsychopinae includes the Jurassic genera Liassopsychops and Huiyingogramma, sit. nov., which bear forewings characterized by Sc and RA not fused distally; MP, CuA, CuP, and A1 dichotomously branched; and a well-developed central eye-spot. The forewing of Ophtalmogramma n. gen. is most similar to that of Apochrysogramma Yang et al., 2011. The diversity of early Toarcian kalligrammatids indicates a late Triassic–earliest Jurassic origin of the family. A modified classification of the central eye-spots is proposed based on the presence/absence of four main components, i.e., the central pigmented disc (A), swellings (B), ocules (C), and outer rings (D). The function of the swellings is unclear, but they may have served as pheromone containers.

Introduction

The Mesozoic Kalligrammatidae are the most attractive insects in the order Neuroptera. The family contains the largest species within the order, with forewings up to 160 mm long (Bechly and Makarkin, 2016). Most are characterized by conspicuous eye-spots on the fore- and hind wings, and mouthparts with a long proboscis, by which they superficially resemble tropical butterflies (Labandeira et al., 2016).

The first species of Kalligrammatidae was described by Walther (1904) from the famous Upper Jurassic (Tithonian) Solnhofen Lithographic Limestone, i.e., Kalligramma haeckeli. Handlirsch published the first reconstruction of its venation (Handlirsch, 1906, pl. 48, fig. 5) and of the complete insect (Handlirsch, 1911, pl. 10, fig. 17), often reproduced in paleontology and entomology textbooks (e.g., Abel, 1920, fig. 158; Martynova, 1962, fig. 865). Since then, knowledge of fossil kalligrammatids has considerably expanded, especially in the last two decades. The family currently comprises 49 species belonging to 17 genera from the Middle/lowermost Upper Jurassic of China (Daohugou and Yujiagou), the Upper Jurassic of Germany (Solnhofen) and Kazakhstan (Karatau), the Lower Cretaceous of England (Tonbridge and Teffont Evias), China (Yixian Formation), Mongolia (Anda-Khuduk), Russia (Transbaikalia: Baissa), and Brazil (Crato Formation) (Handlirsch, 1906–1908, 1919; Martynova, 1947; Panfilov, 1968; Martins-Neto, 1992, 1997; Ponomarenko, 1992; Lambkin, 1994; Ren and Guo, 1996; Jarzembowski, 2001; Ren and Oswald, 2002; Ren, 2003; Zhang, 2003; Zhang and Zhang, 2003; Engel, 2005; Makarkin et al., 2009; Yang et al., 2009, 2011, 2014a, 2014b; Makarkin, 2010; Jepson et al., 2012; Liu et al., 2014, 2015; Bechly and Makarkin, 2016).

The Cretanallachiinae Makarkin, 2017 (including Burmogramma Liu et al., 2018) from the lowermost Cenomanian Burmese amber was considered a subfamily of Kalligrammatidae by Liu et al. (2018), primarily as each wing of Burmogramma bears an eye-spot like type 1 of Kalligrammatidae (see Labandeira et al., 2016) and the forewing MP (for abbreviations see “2. Material and methods”) is branched as in many Kalligrammatidae, i.e., the posterior trace of MP bears several anteriorly-directed branches. However, similar constructions of eye-spots and MP branching are also present in several undescribed ithonid-like species from the Jurassic of Daohugou (VM, pers. obs.). Other characters of Burmogramma (venation of both the fore- and hind wings, mouthparts, male and female genitalia) do not principally differ from those of other genera of Cretanallachiinae, suggesting that this subfamily is monophyletic. Their wings are characterized in particular by such symplesiomorphies at the order level as the presence of the distal nygma in both fore- and hind wings, and the long, sinuous basal crossvein between R and M in the hind wing, not detected in any Kalligrammatidae. Therefore, we cannot consider Cretanallachiinae to be members of the Kalligrammatidae based on these character states, which might be homoplasious.

The hypothesis that kalligrammatids were specialized pollinators feeding on pollen of Bennettitales and cycads was first proposed by Zherikhin (1978, 1980) and Rasnitsyn (1980) based on the mouthparts of Meioneurites spectabilis Engel, 2005 from the Upper Jurassic of Karatau (Kazakhstan). Since then, many long-proboscid species of Kalligrammatidae have been described. They are now generally thought to have fed on the pollen and secretions of the reproductive organs of extinct gymnosperms (mostly Bennettitales) (Labandeira, 2010; Labandeira et al., 2016).

Together with other Mesozoic long-proboscid insects (such as Mecoptera and Diptera) kalligrammatids not only reveal the high diversity of Mesozoic pollinating insects, but also highlight the diversity of Mesozoic pollinator-dependent plants prior to the dominance of angiosperms (Liu et al., 2018).

Kalligrammatidae in the Lower Jurassic was first reported by Makarkin et al. (2009) based on a photograph of specimen BSPG 2009/XIX, 11 in Tischlinger (1992) from the lower Toarcian Posidonia Shale of Kerkhofen (Oberpfalz, Bavaria). This specimen was acquired in 2009 by Bayerische Staatssammlung für Geologie and Paläontologie (Munich) as part of the private collection of Winfried Hartwig (Nuremberg) (Nose, 2010).

Another specimen of the same species was subsequently found by Michael Klopschar in the former marl pit of Schandelah near Braunschweig, who reported it as Kalligramma sp. (Klopschar, 2006, fig. 19.19).

These two specimens are described here as belonging to Liassopsychops curvatus Bode, 1953, a neuropteran species which was based on a distal wing fragment from the lower Toarcian of Grassel near Braunschweig. A second kalligrammatid species is described here, based on a fragmentary wing from the Schandelah marl pit, also made available to us by Michael Klopschar.

Section snippets

Material and methods

The paper is based on three specimens of Kalligrammatidae from two Lower Jurassic (lower Toarcian) localities of Germany, Schandelah and Kerkhofen (see details below in sections 3.1 and 3.2).

We follow the venational terminology of Breitkreuz et al. (2017). Terminology of wing spaces and details of venation (e.g., traces, veinlets, ORB) follows Oswald (1993).

Venational abbreviations: A1–A3, first to third anal veins; Cu, cubitus; CuA, cubitus anterior; CuP, cubitus posterior; hv, humeral veinlet

Lower Toarcian localities

Fossil insects of the Lower Jurassic of middle and western Europe are abundant in a brief interval at the beginning of the lower Toarcian (ca. 182 Ma). These assemblages are unique for this time. They were deposited in black shales during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event of the European epicontinental sea (Posidonia Shale) (Jenkyns, 1988). The fossils are extraordinarily well preserved in fine-grained micritic calcareous nodules or layers formed in anoxic, calm water without bioturbation of

Systematic palaeontology

Class Insecta Linnaeus, 1758

Order Neuroptera Linnaeus, 1758

Family Kalligrammatidae Handlirsch, 1906–1908 [1906]

Subfamily Liassopsychopinae n. subfam.

Etymology: From Liassopsychops, a genus-group name. The genitive case of the Greek noun ops is op-os, and its stem is op, and therefore the correct spelling is Liassopsychopinae (not Liassopsychopsinae).

Diagnosis: Forewing with recurrent, branched humeral veinlet; Sc, RA distally not fused; MP, CuA, CuP, A1 are dichotomously branched; eye-spot well

Paleoclimatic conditions in the early Toarcian

It is now well established that the climate in the Early Jurassic dramatically changed from temperate to hot greenhouse (even super-greenhouse) during the Pliensbachian–Toarcian interval (e.g., Hermoso et al., 2013; Hesselbo et al., 2013; Slater et al., 2019; van de Schootbrugge et al., 2019). The early Toarcian is the warmest interval of the Jurassic Period, with an abrupt rise in global temperatures of up to ∼7°C in mid-latitudes at the onset of the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (Xu et al.,

Acknowledgements

We thank the following people for various help: Michael Klopschar (Braunschweig) for allowing us to study the Schandelah specimens and providing additional information on the Schandelah and Hondelage sections; Mike Reich (BSPG) for allowing us to study the Kerkhofen specimen; Jürgen Vespermann (Roemer-Paeliceus Museum Hildesheim), Carmen Heunisch (Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Hannover) and Günther Schweigert (Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart) for photographs of

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