Salagoulestes wesleyi, Fate, Caitlin, Lapeyrie, Jean & Nel, Andre, 2013

Fate, Caitlin, Lapeyrie, Jean & Nel, Andre, 2013, A new Permagrionidae from the Middle Permian of the South of France (Odonatoptera: Protozygoptera), Zootaxa 3702 (4), pp. 397-400 : 398-400

Salagoulestes wesleyi sp. n. ( Figs 1–3 )

Holotype. Specimen LdLAP 584 A–B, Lapeyrie coll., Musée Fleury. Lodève, France.

Diagnosis. The same as for the genus.

Etymology. Named after Dale Wesley Fate, father of first author.

Age and outcrop. Middle Permian, Guadalupian, Mérifons Member, Salagou Formation, outcrop “La Prade”, Lodève, Languedoc, France.

Description. Imprint and counterimprint of a wing with apical part, base of anal vein, and subcostal area missing; 12.8 mm long, 2.7 mm wide; distance from base to nodus 5.1 mm, to arculus 2.6 mm; from nodus to pterostigma 6.6 mm, RP separating from MA 0.9 mm from distal base of arculus; MAa and MAb separating 0.4 mm from base of RP; MAb 0.3 mm long; MP reaching CuA 1.3 mm from base of CuA, CuA separating again from MP 3.3 mm from wing base, slightly distal of separation of RP from MA; CuP not preserved; wing petiolated with posterior margin not preserved; one complete antenodal vein preserved (Ax1?), 1.2 mm basal to arculus; Cr and subnodus aligned and strongly oblique; four postnodals; four postsubnodals, not aligned with postnodals; Asn present; base of IR1 8.7 mm distal of separation of RP and MA, base of RP 2 7.6 mm, IR2 5.9 mm, RP 3/4 2.9 mm, thus all distal of subnodus; RP 2 apparently branching on IR2, with its real base appearing as a rather weakly oblique vein between it and RP 1; no secondary longitudinal veins between main veins in preserved parts; longitudinal veins, except CuA, at their distal part, are straight; area between MP and CuA distally reduced; cubital area with one row of cells and straight cross-veins; Pterostigma elongated, probably sclerotized, darker than the wing membrane, ca. 1.7 mm long, 0.25 mm wide, with one crossvein below it.

Discussion. Salagoulestes wesleyi gen. n., sp. n. can be considered as a member of the Protozygoptera + Panodonata because it has a true pterostigma, CuA captured by MP, and reduction of CuP to a short vein (not visible here but certainly reduced). It has two obvious characters present in Protozygoptera, viz. the point of separation between CuA and MP not aligned with the posterior branch of MA (MAb) and the nodal crossvein Cr and subnodus oblique and well aligned, but as plesiomorphies, these characters are not sufficient to attribute Salagoulestes to this group. Nevertheless Salagoulestes shares with the Permagrionidae the apomorphic presence of an ASn vein between RA and RP basal of subnodus.

Within this family, Salagoulestes differs from Permagrion falklandicum Tillyard, 1928 , in the CuA much shorter, ending on posterior wing margin at level of base of IR2, instead of base of IR1. Salagoulestes differs Permolestes gracilis Martynov, 1932, Permolestes sheimogorai Nel et al., 2012, and Permolestes soyanaiensis Nel et al., 2012, in the presence of three rows of cells or more in area between CuA and posterior wing margin. P. falklandicum and P. soyanaiensis also have shorter pterostigmas (character state unknown in P. sheimogorai ), unlike Salagoulestes . Scytolestes stigmalis Martynov, 1937, has also three rows of cells in cubital area, and it seems to have a shorter petiole relatively to the distance between arculus and nodus, than in Salagoulestes . The three species of Epilestes Martynov, 1937 (E. kargalensis Martynov, 1932, E. angustapterix Nel et al., 2012, and E. gallica Nel et al., 1999) differ from Salagoulestes in the presence of two-three rows of cells in cubital area and a longer CuA reaching the level of the base of RP 2 at least.

Solikamptilon pectinatus Nel et al., 2012, differs from Salagoulestes in the presence of sigmoidal veinlets and transversely elongate cells in cubital area, even if they share a zigzagged CuA. Solikamptilon remuliforme Zalessky, 1948, has a very long CuA ending at the level of the base of IR1, and sigmoidal veinlets in cubital area. Both have fewer postnodal and postsubnodal cells and crossveins than Salagoulestes .

Salagoulestes has a RP 2 that apparently emerges from IR2 as in Scytolestes and Permagrion, but not as in Epilestes and Solikamptilon. This character state is a potential synapomorphy of the three genera Salagoulestes , Scytolestes, and Permagrion. Permolestes is in an intermediate situation with base of RP 2 midway between RP 1 and IR2.

Salagoulestes differs from Lodevia longialata Nel et al., 1999 (type species of the Lodeviidae Nel et al., 2012, from Lodève Basin), in the nodal Cr well aligned with subnodus, CuA more zigzagged and ending on posterior wing margin well basal of level of base of RP 2, and many fewer cells and crossveins (Nel et al. 1999).

As the second representative of the Permagrionidae and third Protozygoptera in the Salagou Formation, Salagoulestes confirms the hypothesis that this group was relatively diverse in this palaeoenvironment. More generally the Odonatoptera are quite well represented in this place with nine species of Meganeuridae Handlirsch, 1906 , one Lapeyriidae Nel et al. 1999, and even the oldest Panodonata, Saxonagrion minutus Nel et al., 1999 (Nel et al. 1999a,b,c, 2008, 2009). The absence in this place of the Permian clade Protanisoptera, well recorded in North and South America, Australia, and Russia (Huguet et al. 2002), remains unexplained.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Salagoulestes wesleyi gen. n., sp. n., holotype LdLAP 584 A (imprint), Photograph of wing. Scale bar represents 1 mm.

FIGURE 2. Salagoulestes wesleyi gen. n., sp. n., holotype LdLAP 584 B (counterimprint), Photograph of wing. Scale bar represents 2 mm.

FIGURE 3. Salagoulestes wesleyi gen. n., sp. n., holotype LdLAP 584 A – B, reconstruction of wing. Scale bar represents 2 mm.