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Issue: Vol. 5 No. 1: January–February 2022
Type: Article
Published: 2022-02-23
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.5.1.5
Page range: 046–056
Abstract views: 1840
PDF downloaded: 460

A hangingfly (Mecoptera, Bittacidae) from the late Oligocene Fossillagerstätte Enspel, Westerwald (SW Germany)

Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe RLP, Direktion Landesarchäologie/Erdgeschichte, Niederberger Höhe 1, D-56077 Koblenz, Germany
Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHE, Université des Antilles, CP 50, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France
Mecoptera Bittacidae SW Germany Insecta Eremobittacus Oligocene Enspel

Abstract

A hangingfly (Mecoptera, Bittacidae) is described from bituminous shales of the late Oligocene crater-lake of Enspel, Germany. It is attributed to a new species, Eremobittacus opeth sp. nov., and constitutes the first post-Eocene record of fossil hangingflies from Germany. The genus Eremobittacus was hitherto exclusively known from Mexico. Its presence in the Oligocene of Germany is a further case of insect dispersion between North America and Europe, via the Beringian, the Thulean, or the De Geer routes during the Paleogene.

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