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Issue: Vol. 9 No. 3: June 2026
Type: Correspondence
Published: 2026-06-29
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.9.3.4
Page range: 217-220
Abstract views: 41
PDF downloaded: 3

A new Miocene Aeshna from Germany (Odonata: Aeshnidae)

Department of Natural History; Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt; Friedensplatz 1; 64283 Darmstadt; Germany
Department of Natural History; Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt; Friedensplatz 1; 64283 Darmstadt; Germany; Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn; Bonner Institut für Organismische Biologie: Abteilung V Paläontologie; Nußallee 8; 53115 Bonn; Germany
Institut de Systématique; Évolution; Biodiversité (ISYEB); Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle; CNRS; Sorbonne Université; EPHE; Université des Antilles; CP50; 57 rue Cuvier; 75005 Paris; France
A new Miocene Aeshna from Germany (Odonata: Aeshnidae)

Abstract

The hawker dragonflies or Aeshnidae sensu stricto (excluding the Gomphaeschnidae) are diverse in the fossil record but still known only in the Cenozoic. They are rather frequent as compression fossils during the Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene (e.g., Nel et al., 1994, 1996, 1997; Prokop & Nel, 2000; Nel & Petrulevičius, 2010; Nel et al., 2024). Among these the genus Aeshna Fabricius, 1775 is represented by Late Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene species from North America, Europe, and China, with an increasing diversity through time, with one Eocene, three Oligocene, and 11 Miocene species. The diversity of the other aeshnid genera apparently decreased during the same period in Eurasia and North America (e.g., the Eocene to Miocene genus Oligaeschna Piton & Théobald, 1939) (Huang et al., 2023). Fossil Cenozoic Aeshnidae are quite poorly known in the other parts of the world. Here we describe a new species of Aeshna from the Middle Miocene of Germany, confirming this general tendency.

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