A revised checklist of Nepticulidae fossils (Lepidoptera) indicates an Early Cretaceous origin

Abstract

With phylogenetic knowledge of Lepidoptera rapidly increasing, catalysed by increasingly powerful molecular techniques, the demand for fossil calibration points to estimate an evolutionary timeframe for the order is becoming an increasingly pressing issue. The family Nepticulidae is a species rich, basal branch within the phylogeny of the Lepidoptera, characterized by larval leaf-mining habits, and thereby represents a potentially important lineage whose evolutionary history can be established more thoroughly with the potential use of fossil calibration points. Using our experience with extant global Nepticulidae, we discuss a list of characters that may be used to assign fossil leaf mines to Nepticulidae, and suggest useful methods for classifying relevant fossil material. We present a checklist of 79 records of Nepticulidae representing adult and leaf-mine fossils mentioned in literature, often with multiple exemplars constituting a single record. We provide our interpretation of these fossils. Two species now are included in the collective generic name Stigmellites: Stigmellites resupinata (Krassilov, 2008) comb. nov. (from Ophiheliconoma) and Stigmellites almeidae (Martins-Neto, 1989) comb. nov. (from Nepticula). Eleven records are for the first time attributed to Nepticulidae. After discarding several dubious records, including one possibly placing the family at a latest Jurassic position, we conclude that the oldest fossils likely attributable to Nepticulidae are several exemplars representing a variety of species from the Dakota Formation (USA). The relevant strata containing these earliest fossils are now dated at 102 Ma (million years ago) in age, corresponding to the latest Albian Stage of the Early Cretaceous. Integration of all records in the checklist shows that a continuous presence of nepticulid-like leaf mines preserved as compression-impression fossils and by amber entombment of adults have a fossil record extending to the latest Early Cretaceous.

Revised classification and catalogue of global Nepticulidae and Opostegidae (Lepidoptera, Nepticuloidea)

“…eight to ten families. The list also includes four taxa of fossil leafmines, previously considered to possibly belong to Nepticulidae (Doorenweerd et al 2015b). …”

“…Here we report 862 extant named species of Nepticulidae and 192 Opostegidae, a total of 1054. For the 18 fossil species we refer to our earlier catalogue (Doorenweerd et al 2015b). We illustrate most genera with watercolours by Roland Johansson in Figures 25–40.…”

“…See further van Nieukerken & Johansson (1987), Davis (1989), Puplesis & Robinson (1999) and for the fossils Doorenweerd et al (2015b).…”

“…This resulted in several phylogeny papers (Doorenweerd et al 2015a; Doorenweerd et al 2016a), and some that are still in preparation. In order to improve calibration points for molecular phylogenies, all Nepticulidae fossils were re-assessed and catalogued (Doorenweerd et al 2015b), and the named ones with formal descriptions are also included in the present catalogue.…”

Re-examining the rare and the lost: a review of fossil Tortricidae (Lepidoptera)

“…Using the most recent information on the systematics of Lepidoptera or subgroups, combined with thorough re-examination of known fossils specimens, the project seeks to clarify and correct past identifications and establish a new basis and criteria for future work on fossil Lepidoptera. Reviews on fossil Nepticulidae (Doorenweerd et al 2015) and Papilionoidea (de Jong 2017) have already been published, and several reviews on fossils currently placed in other superfamilies are in preparation. Sohn et al (2012Sohn et al ( , 2015 listed 82 fossil specimens assigned to Tortricidae.…”