Timema, A Stick Insect With

Barden, Phillip & Ware, Jessica L., 2017, Relevant Relicts: The Impact of Fossil Distributions on Biogeographic Reconstruction, Insect Systematics and Diversity 1 (1), pp. 73-80 : 74-75

Timema, A Stick Insect With a Relictual Range?

Timema Scudder 1895 is a stick insect in the order Phasmatodea whose extant distribution is restricted to the Western United States and Mexico.The remaining ~3,000 species of Phasmatodea have more widespread distributions. Timema is the sole genus in Timematoidea, and the current distribution of the superfamily is Nearctic, restricted to Western United States and northern Mexico. Based on its current distribution, this taxon could be considered a Nearctic endemic. The superfamily contains a single described stem lineage with a range outside of the Nearctic, however, with Electrotimema carstengroehni Zompro present in Eocene Baltic amber (~34–37 Ma; Zompro 2005) from

Kaliningrad, in the Russian Federation (54.9°N, 19.9°E). Although this fossil lineage is represented by a single specimen in amber, it suggests that one should use caution when interpreting the ancestral ecological niche of Timema based only on its current distribution.