Ptychoptera deleta Novak , 1877

Krzeminski, Wieslaw & Prokop, Jakub, 2011, Ptychoptera deleta Novak, 1877 from the Early Miocene of the Czech Republic: redescription of the first fossil attributed to Ptychopteridae (Diptera), ZooKeys 130, pp. 299-305 : 301-302

Ptychoptera deleta Novak, 1877 Figs 2 A–C

Ptychoptera deleta Novák, 1877: p. 88, Pl. II, Fig.1.

Ptychopterula deleta ( Novák, 1877): Handlirsch (1909): p. 264, 269.

Liriope (" Ptychopterula ") deleta ( Novák, 1878): Peus (1958):p. 12, fig. 17.

Diagnosis.

Rs very short; R4+5 five times longer than Rs; R4 nearly as long as R4+5; wing coloration pattern with isolated subapical spot and without spot on R2.

Redescription.

Wing with original coloration pattern of dark clouds visible in medial and distal part; Sc rather long, ending opposite proximal third part of R3; R1 long; cross vein r-r (R2) at its about two lengths before tip of R1; Rs very short; R4+5 five times longer than Rs; R4 nearly as long as R4+5; cross vein r-m just before forks of Rs and of M; distal part R5 and most part of medial veins not preserved, cross vein m-cu about its length behind origin of M3+4; A1 rather long, its distalmost section strongly curved to posterior wing margin.

Dimensions.

Length of wing fragment about 7 mm, probable total length about 7.1 mm; maximum width about 1.8 mm.

Holotype.

No. NM-P947 (imprint of nearly complete wing with medio-apical part missing, posterior wing margin is partially broken, venation well preserved with traces of original pattern of coloration). Specimen is housed in collection of National Museum in Prague, Czech Republic.

Age and layer.

Early Miocene (Ottnangian/Karpatian), Cypris Formation (grey claystone) sensu Rojík (2004).

Discussion.

We provide a re-description of the holotype specimen with several inaccurate characters in wing venation corrected in comparison to the original drawing of Novák, e.g., ending of R1 to anterior wing margin, indication of coloration pattern, A1 basally running parallel to Cu for long distance and ending in posterior wing margin, several missing or present cross-veins. Moreover, we supplement the description by the first photograph of this specimen (unavailable in 1877).

Unfortunately the single diagnostic wing character (M1+2 fork) of the subfamily Ptychopterinae is not preserved. However, the wing venation pattern with very well visible crossvein r-m positioned just before M forking into M1+2 and M3+4, and original color pattern of Ptychoptera deleta show considerable similarities to recent species of Ptychoptera . These are distinct apomorphic characters present only in this genus within the family Ptychopteridae . The wing venation of Ptychoptera deleta is somewhat similar to the recent Ptychoptera agnes Krzemiński & Zwick, 1993 described from Hungary (Figs 2 C–D). This fact is not surprising due to the Early Miocene age of our fossil (about 18-16 Ma) and considerably high morphological stability of insects ( Nel and Prokop 2009; Hörnschemeyer et al. 2009). Finally, our present re-examination of the holotype confirms the great erudition of the Czech pioneer palaeontomologist Dr Ottomar Novák who correctly attributed the fossil species to the otherwise modern genus Ptychoptera .