EADIIDAE, Vršanský, 2009

Vršanský, Peter, 2009, Albian cockroaches (Insecta, Blattida) from French amber of Archingeay, Geodiversitas 31 (1), pp. 73-98 : 82

Family EADIIDAE n. fam.

TYPE GENUS. — Eadia n. gen.

OTHER GENUS INCLUDED. —? Raphidiomimula Grimaldi & Ross, 2004 from the Upper Albian Burmese amber.

RANGE. — Eurasia, Upper Albian.

DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS. — The family may be included within Dictyoptera based on the general habitus, hypognathous head, multisegmented, partially fusiform cerci and wing pads. It can be further categorized as belonging to cockroaches and not to mantises based on the generally short body, short pronotum and particularly cursorial forelegs with short tibiae (but with two rows of spurs like in mantises and liberiblattinid cockroaches), and extremely long tarsi.

Eadiidae n. fam. differs from all known cockroach families in having hypognathous, but largely expanded and prolonged head, extremely short pronotum, by curved carination and long tarsi of forelegs and by extremely elongated cerci.

DESCRIPTION

Head hypognathous, largely prolonged. Eyes (with small facets) protruding beyond the head outline. Three ocelli present. Pronotum extremely short and wide. Wing pads distinct. Legs robust, forelegs tibiae short, with sharply curved spurs, fore tarsi extremely long. Cercus extremely long, and in the apical half extremely narrow.

REMARKS

The extremely long extremities, and long narrow maxillary palps resembling those of families Caloblattinidae and Raphidiomimidae (symplesiomorphies), exclude affinities with Polyphagoidea (including Liberiblattinidae and Skokidae ), Umenocoleoidea and Blattuloidea . The generally short body and elongated fore tarsi are strong autapomorphies, the former eventually serving for capturing prey. Another possible synapomorphy with primitive mantises is the elongated cercus.

The composition of head is a strong autapomorphy, a trend towards prolongation perhaps inherited from the Caloblattinidae , whose heads are diverse. Raphidiomimidae have prognathous head (autapomorphy)and very short fore tarsi(plesiomorphy).Thus, the new family may be attributed within Caloblattinoidea and derived directly from the Caloblattinidae .

Even when the morphology of head appears identical with the Raphidiomimula , the categorization of this genus is obscure, because of its longer pronotum and shorter tarsi.