Completely preserved cockroaches of the family Mesoblattinidae from the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation (Liaoning Province, NE China)

Abstract

Although cockroaches were the dominant insects in various Paleozoic and Mesozoic insect assemblages, their general morphology was extremely conservative. One of the most common of them, the Jurassic-Cretaceous family Mesoblattinidae, is described here for the first time on the basis of completely preserved specimens. Ninety-two specimens of Perlucipecta aurea gen. et sp. n. reveal details of head, mandible, male tergal glands and terminal hook; cercal, leg and antennal sensilla. Its congener, P. vrsanskyi is described from the same sediments of the Yixian Formation (Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous). The forewing venation variability of P. aurea, analysed for the first time in this family is nearly identical (CV = 6.23 %) with variability of two species of family Blattulidae that occur at the same locality (CV = 6.22 %; 5.72 %). The transitional nature of morphological characters represented by asymmetry between left and right wings (simple/branched forewing SC and hind wing M) in P. aurea documents the phylogenetic relation between the families Mesoblattinidae and Ectobiidae

New predatory cockroaches (Insecta: Blattaria: Manipulatoridae fam.n.) from the Upper Cretaceous Myanmar amber

“…Left hind wing at least with one fusion (sensu Vršanský 2005 -R1 dichotomized improperly, see Wei & Ren 2013 for the same deformity type in another Mesozoic cockroach; smaller insects such as cockroach parasites reveal such theratologies rarely - Li et al 2014). Characters of wing venation are listed in detail in the character analysis below.…”

Nuurcala obesa sp. n. (Blattida, Caloblattinidae) from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation in Liaoning Province, China

“…Dry habitats are rather characterized by monochromatic and pale cockroach individuals (Vršanský et al 2009, Wei and Ren in press). The new taxon supports the notion that Yixian Formation was humid and moist.…”

NativeEctobius(Blattaria: Ectobiidae) from the Early Eocene Green River Formation of Colorado and Its Reintroduction to North America 49 Million Years Later

“…The late Paleozoic and Mesozoic faunas are characterized by oviposition of isolated eggs through use of an external ovipositor, which was long and prominent in Paleozoic forms and comparatively short to blunt in Mesozoic taxa, with eggs deposited in a conglomeratic fashion. By contrast, the Ectobiidae (ϭBlattellidae), originating near JurassicϪCretaceous boundary, and possibly some of their predecessors, the Mesoblattinidae (Vršanský 1997, Wei andRen 2013), in addition to the entire modern cockroach fauna, are characterized by taxa that lay their eggs within a hardened egg-case, the oö theca. Most Mesozoic families, such as the dominant Blattulidae and Caloblattinidae, disappeared before the KϪPg boundary at the end of the Cretaceous, which responded to a major ecological crisis, at least in North America (Labandeira et al 2002).…”