The first fossil record ofNandevaWiedenbrug, Reiss & Fittkau (Diptera: Chironomidae) in early Eocene Fushun amber from China

An enigmatic Chironomidae (Diptera): first larval description for Nandeva Wiedenbrug, Reiss and Fittkau and evidence for phylogenetic position in Tanytarsini

“…Although the node connecting Nandeva within Tanytarsini is unsupported, a date (and range around this node) of 42 Ma) can be postulated. This is expected, as we had applied the Eocene calibration fossil Nandeva pudens (Giłka et al 2016) to the stem at 49.5 Ma, a youngest age attributed to Fushun amber, with the value of 42 Ma applying to the crown age.…”

“…Of greater significance is the undeniable presence of Nandeva in early Eocene Fushun (Palaearctic China) and the fossil genus Eonandeva (possibly stem Nandeva) from slightly younger Baltic amber (Zakrzewska and Giłka 2015b). Such ancient presence of stem groups of 'gondwanan' crown taxa, are discussed by Giłka et al (2016) for Chironomidae. Other examples include termites of the family Mastotermitidae, the sister group to the remaining extant termites, is known from the Miocene to Eocene of Europe, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic and perhaps Cretaceous fossils in the Palearctic is reduced now to Mastotermes darwiniensis, a pest in northern Australia.…”

“…al. 2013;Giłka 2014, 2015b;Zakrzewska et al 2016;Zakrzewska et al 2018) and to Nandeva (Giłka et al 2016). Temporal analysis (Fig.…”

“…With this character state score emended in a revised matrix, analysed under a range of weighting schemes, Saether and Roque (2004) proposed several positions for Nandeva, including as sister to, or within Tanytarsini, but with various different internal relationships. The position of Nandeva was argued as near or within tribe Tanytarsini based on male characters from the only known fossil species, N. pudens, from Fushun amber (early Eocene, NE China) by Giłka et al (2016). Some morphology seemed driven by shared reductions likely to have been convergent, as suggested also by Cranston (1999).…”

Reaching across the ocean of time: A midge morphotype from the Cretaceous of Gondwana found in the Eocene Baltic amber

“…After the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, Chironomidae is mostly represented by forms attributed to genera with modern representatives such as Nandeva, Heterotrissocladius, Smittia, Paraphaenocladius, and others. Representatives of all of these are known from the early Eocene onwards (Wichard and Seredszus, 2007;Baranov et al, 2015;Gilka et al, 2016).…”