A Cretaceous crane-fly (Diptera: Tipulidae): 93 million years of stasis

Abstract

A new fossil species of crane‐fly, Helius botswanensis:Diptera: Tipulidaey is described. The specimen was discovered recently in reliably dated. Cretaceous sediments from Botswana. Ii is extremely well preserved, has a distinctive morphology, and is identified as belonging to the extant genus Helius. The single specimen puts the origin of the subfamily Limoniinae and the genus well into the Cretaceous Period, and provides data on the southern African Cretaceous palaeoenvironment. The conservative nature of a dipteran of such antiquity, assignable to an extant genus which has an association with flowers, has implications for evolutionary theory.

Insect Mouthparts: Ascertaining the Paleobiology of Insect Feeding Strategies

“…Additionally the seeds of an extinct gingkophyte were used by caddisfly naiads to construct cases (159). At Orapa, Botswana, dated as Cenomanian (93 Ma) in age, a glimpse into an early Late Cretaceous insect fauna reveals weevils with well-preserved, decurved beaks (171), staphylinid beetles with typical mandibulate mouthparts (269), and a tipulid fly (268) housing an elongate rostrum 0.3 cm long, the tip bearing elongate, five-segmented palps and a small labellum, interpreted as a modificadon for nectarivory (267,268).…”

New and little known crane-fly species of the genera Helius, Elephantomyia and Toxorhina (Diptera, Limoniidae) from Dominican and Mexican amber

“…Until recently, 20 fossil species had been described, mainly from Eocene Baltic amber (Loew, 1850(Loew, , 1851Meunier, 1906;Alexander, 1931;Krzemiński 1985Krzemiński , 1993Podenas, 2002;Kania, 2014), but also from Early Cretaceous of Botswana (Rayner and Waters, 1990), Burma (Ribeiro, 2003), Lebanon (Kania et al, 2013;Krzemiński et al, 2014) and Eocene/Oligocene (Krzemiński, 1991), Oligocene of Germany (Statz, 1934(Statz, , 1944, Oligocene Dominican amber (Podenas and Poinar, 2001), Miocene of Russia (Krzemiński, 2002), Miocene of Mexico (Podenas and Poinar, 2012 than its width; inner gonostylus 1/4 shorter than outer gonostylus, strongly curved at the end directed to its basal part, widened at the base; outer gonostylus elongated, narrow, straight, slightly curved at the end; aedeagus elongated, wide (Figures 5.5,6.3).…”

New fossil representative of the genus Helius (Diptera, Limoniidae) from the little known and newly discovered locality Caergen Village of northeastern Tibetan Plateau (China)

“…The oldest members of the genus were found recently in Lebanon amber from the Lower Cretaceous (Kania et al, 2013;Krzemiński et al, 2014). From the Cretaceous three more species were described: in Burmese amber from mid-Cretaceous (Ribeiro, 2002), from the Upper Cretaceous of Botswana (Rayner and Waters, 1990) and from Cretaceous amber of Alava (Spain) (Kania et al, 2016). However, majority of fossil Helius species were described from Eocene Baltic amber (Loew, 1850;Meunier, 1906;Alexander, 1931;Krzemiński, 1985Krzemiński, , 1993Kania et al, 2013;Krzemiński et al, 2014;Kania, 2014).…”