Arvernineura insignis Piton, 1940
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.4202/app.00628.2019 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A33A879A-3135-FFDE-92A7-706A99B0FC13 |
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treatment provided by |
Felipe |
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scientific name |
Arvernineura insignis Piton, 1940 |
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Arvernineura insignis Piton, 1940 View in CoL
Figs. 3 View Fig , 4C View Fig .
Material.—MNT NEL1656, a pair of forewings, nearly complete, and some foretibial and forefemoral spines. From South-east of the village of Menat, Menat Basin, Puy-de-Dôme, France; middle Paleocene.
Description.—Preserved length of wing 38.0 mm, width 6.0 mm; fore femoral spines hardly visible and difficult to count; the two fore femora superposed and some spines are detached from raw; six preserved spines on one fore tibia, and 10–11 preserved spines on second with seventh or eighth larger than others; bases of these spines disposed into a curved line, indicating a curvature of fore tibiae ( Figs. 3 View Fig , 4C View Fig ).
Remarks.—These mantises in amber have a character on the fore tibiae typical of the extant Chaeteessa : a large median spine, larger and thicker than those more basal and distal of antero-ventral raw ( Fig. 4 View Fig ). It seems to be absent in all other extant and fossils mantises with known fore legs (TS personal observation; for figures of fossil specimens see Grimaldi 2003: figs. 3, 7–15). This is a putative synapomorphy of the Chaeteessidae . Therefore, it refutes Cui et al. 2018) who doubted about the placement of Arvenineura into the Chaeteessidae . Also Cui et al. (2018) stated that the shape of the “stigma” is the same as in Arvenineura insignis and in Cretophotina tristriata Gratshev and Zherikhin, 1993 . However, if we follow the wing nomenclature of Béthoux and Wieland (2009) (also used in Brannoch et al. 2017), we notice that the “stigma” of A. insignis covers a part of the RP+M and of the CuA areas, as in extant Chaeteessa ( Nel and Roy 1996) , while that of Cretophotina tristriata covers only the CuA area ( Gratshev and Zherikhin 1993; Grimaldi 2003). This character does not allow to separate A. insignis from the extant Chaeteessa . Also the term “stigma” is not appropriate to designate this structure. This structure, a highly sclerotized vein, was referred by Grimaldi (2003) as the “pseudovein”, while in mantises, the stigma generally refers to another sclerotized area of fore wing, often white, smaller and present more basally than the “pseudovein”. Furthermore, some mantises have these two structures well separated on their fore wings. The general shape of the wing of A. insignis is also closer to that of Chaeteessa rather than of Cretophotina tristriata ( Nel and Roy 1996; Grimaldi 2003). Lastly, A. insignis has a relatively broad area between the fore wing veins ScP and R, as in Chaeteessa , while all other extant and most fossil mantises (including Cretophotina tristriata ) have a narrower area between these veins. Based on all these characters of wing and fore leg, we assume the placement of A. insignis into the Chaeteessidae , and its suitability as a crown Mantodea for date calibration.
Although the two specimens of Chaeteessidae of Oise amber could be associated without doubt to this family, we are not able to determinate if they are of the same species. Also, we are not able to assign these specimens to a precise genus of Chaeteessidae due to the lack of characters. Arvenineura is closer to these fossils spatially and temporally than Chaeteessa , but this does not represent an adequate evidence to associate them to this genus. Consequently, more material is needed to formally describe this (or these) species of Chaeteessidae .
Stratigraphic and geographic range.—Only type locality.
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