The wing venation and systematics of Lower Permian Diaphanopterodea from the Ural Mountains, Russia (Insecta: Paleoptera)

1992 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarmila Kukalová-Peck ◽  
Nina D. Sinichenkova
Keyword(s):  
Lower Permian ◽  
Wing Venation ◽  
Ural Mountains ◽  
Thoracic And Abdominal

Extinct Diaphanopterodea are described from the Lower Permian of Tshekarda, Urals, Russia: Parelmoidae: Uralia n.gen. (Uralia maculata n.sp. and Uralia sharovi n.sp.); Paruraliidae n.fam.: Paruralia n.gen. (Paruralia rohdendorfi n.sp. and Paruralia carpenteri n.sp.). Of all Paleozoic insects, the exceedingly well-preserved specimens of U. maculata have contributed the most important clues to the pterygote ground plans of the head, mouthparts, leg segmentation, thoracic and abdominal pleura, and genitalia.

The "Uniramia" do not exist: the ground plan of the Pterygota as revealed by Permian Diaphanopterodea from Russia (Insecta: Paleodictyopteroidea)

1992 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarmila Kukalová-Peck
Keyword(s):  
Plant Community ◽  
Flapping Flight ◽  
Lower Permian ◽  
Selective Agent ◽  
Ural Mountains ◽  
Ground Plan ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Thoracic Legs ◽  
Maxillary Palps ◽  
Present Plant

The paleomorphology of extinct Paleozoic Diaphanopterodea (Paleodictyopteroidea: Paleoptera) in exceptionally well-preserved Lower Permian Uralia (Parelmoidea) and Paruralia (Paruraliidae) from Tshekarda in the Ural Mountains, Russia, was used to identify the basic morphological components of the pterygote head, body, and genitalia, as follows: a 6-segmented head with sutures between the somites and between the cephalic terga and epicoxae; antennae 2 with four enlarged basal elements and a flagellum; mandibles (shown as fully homologous to the gnathobase of other arthropods) with a sliding anterior articulation; leglike maxillary palps, labial palps, abdominal leglets, and gonostyli, all starting with prefemur, bearing a fully articulated patella (as in spiders) and ending in double claws; polyramous thoracic legs (i.e., with several outer rami or exites) and a prefemur not associated, as it usually is, with the trochanter; a thoracic pleuron (wall support) formed from a flattened subcoxa; an abdominal pleuron clearly composed of three flattened leg segments: the subcoxa, coxa, and trochanter; and genitalia revealing their derivation from legs bearing coxal and trochanteral endites. It is suggested that the homoeotic mutant ophthalmoptera is a morphologically acceptable indication that the cephalic epicoxa surrounds the eye. The presence of several rami (exites) on the legs of primitive Paleozoic and modern Crustacea, Chelicerata, and Insecta shows that they share a polyramous arthropod leg; "biramy," as well as "uniramy," is always secondary and does not define higher arthropod taxa. The Atelocerata Heymons, 1901 (= Myriapoda + Hexapoda) is a natural taxon. "Uniramia" was a taxon based mainly on an erroneous "ground plan" of the arthropod leg and mandible, and should be completely dropped from use. In marine arthropods, one of the upper exites often convergently develops into a long swimming oar ramus, and the legs become functionally "biramous." A complex aquatic epicoxal oar ramus of the ancestral Atelocerata may be the only appendage suitably preadapted to become a protowing, modifiable by selection for flapping flight. Paleodictyopteroids with sucking rostra (about 50% of Paleozoic entomofauna) are probably the most important selective agent that initiated the change from the Paleozoic plant community into the present plant community.

Lower Permian "mecopteroid-like" insects from central Europe (Insecta, Endopterygota)

1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarmila Kukalova-Peck ◽  
Rainer Willmann
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Kuznetsk Basin ◽  
Phylogenetic Position ◽  
Lower Permian ◽  
Wing Venation ◽  
Medial Branch ◽  
New Genera ◽  
Ground Plan ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Media

Five new genera and eight new species of endopterygote insects are described from Lower Permian (Asselian and Artinskian) strata from Moravia, Czechoslovakia. Three of the genera belong to the family Protomeropidae: Pseudomerope n.gen. (including Pseudomerope mareki n.sp., Pseudomerope havlati n.sp., Pseudomerope oborana n.sp., Pseudomerope gallei n.sp.); Pseudomeropella n.gen. (including Pseudomeropella nekvasilovae n.sp.); and Stenomerope n.gen. (including Stenomerope spinari n.sp.). The fourth genus, Moravochorista n.gen. (including Moravochorista Carolina n.sp.), is similar to Pinnachorista and Kaltanochorista from the Lower Permian of the Kuznetsk Basin, USSR, but has not been assigned to a higher taxon. The phylogenetic position of both the Protomeropidae and Moravochorista and of their allies, within the endopterygotes is unclear. The fifth genus, Microptysmella n.gen. (including Microptysmella moravica n.sp.), may be the earliest known member of Amphiesmenoptera, since it exhibits almost the same wing venation as the amphiesmenopteran Microptysma sibiricum Martynova from the Lower Permian of the USSR.Wing-venation symbols homologous within the pterygote ground plan have been used in the descriptions. The vein "M5" of earlier authors is regarded as homologous to a convex cross-vein (strut) between the media posterior and the cubitus anterior, which is shared primitively by all endopterygotes, and is not a "fifth medial branch."

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