The Late Carboniferous Triplosoba pulchella is not a fly in the ointment but a stem‐mayfly

Abstract

The Late Carboniferous Triplosoba pulchella (Brongniart, 1893) was regarded by most authors as a stem-mayfly. Contrary to this, it was related to the extinct 'palaeopteran' order Diaphanopterodea in the most recent revision of the species. The only available specimen of the species is re-investigated using various manual and computer-assisted optical techniques. New data are presented and compared with previous data. The reasoning underlying the 'Diaphanopterodea hypothesis' is found to be deficient due to incomplete observations. Moreover, this hypothesis requires multiple character conflicts within Diaphanopterodea. Instead, the '(stem-)Ephemeroptera hypothesis' is favoured. The occurrence of a forked RP2, observed in one hindwing of T. pulchella (RP2 is simple in the other hindwing, and incompletely preserved in forewings) is a strict apomorphy of the group. It is also shown that the species possessed what is interpreted as an early state of the costal brace. Other observations do not contradict this placement, which is overall more consistent than an assignment to the Diaphanopterodea. This contribution demonstrates the importance of long-term conservation of natural history collections, allowing new investigation techniques to be applied in the future.

Manual of praying mantis morphology, nomenclature, and practices (Insecta, Mantodea)

“…As mentioned above, Kukalová-Peck (1991) identified a distinct set of jugal veins, the occurrence of which has been confirmed in Palaeozoic palaeopteran insects only (Béthoux and Nel 2003, Béthoux et al 2007, Béthoux 2015). As a consequence, the ‘jugum’ sensu Martynov (1925) is an area filled with anal veins and characteristic of Neoptera, while ‘jugal veins’ sensu Kukalová-Peck (1991) seem to occur only in stem-lineages of palaeopteran insects.…”

“…Such structures are referred to as ‘intercalary veins.’ In hindwings they can be aligned with concave folds. They can be referred to using the abbreviations of the surrounding veins written in lowercase (see Béthoux 2015). For example, the particular intercalary vein occurring between AA1 and the anterior-most branch of AA2 in Chaeteessa Burmeister, 1838 (located along the plica prima anterior –see below) is referred to as ‘ Iaa 1 -aa 2 ’ (Fig.…”

Deconstructing the long‐standing a priori assumption that serial homology generally involves ancestral similarity followed by anatomical divergence

“…(e) Fossil remains of Triplosoba pulchella (modified from Prokop & Nel, 2009). Illustrations of forewings (f) and hindwings (g) of T. pulchella (modified from Béthoux, 2015). (h) Fossil remains of Bojophlebia prokopi (modified from Sroka, Staniczek, & Bechly, 2015).…”

“…As explained by Miyashita and Diogo (2016), this does not only apply to evolution, but also to development: structures that are considered to be serial homologues, such as some of the nerves and blood vessels of the forelimb vs hind limb, are actually different from each other at early stages of ontogeny ( Figure 3). These facts have lead us to suggest that the pelvic and pectoral appendage of vertebrates are not evolutionary serial homologues, because they contradict the crucial assumptions of shared history-they were not acquired at the same time in vertebrate evolution-and of "ancestral similarity/derived divergence" (Diogo et al, 2013;Diogo & Molnar, 2014;Diogo, Murawala, & Tanaka, 2014;Diogo, Nacu, & Tanaka, 2014;Diogo & Wood, 2015;Diogo & Ziermann, 2014, 2015 Diogo, Ziermann, & Linde-Medina, 2015; Diogo, Ziermann, Molnar, Siomava, & Abdala, 2018). In fact, even if the pectoral and pelvic appendages were eventually more similar in the first gnathostomes having both of them, than what is indicated by the antiarch Parayunnanolepis described by Zhu, Yu, Choo, Wang, and Jia (2012); see Figure 2), as suggested by Trinajstic, Boisvert, Long, and Johanson (2018), such a similarity would not match at all the strikingly high number of bones and muscles that are so markedly similar in the pectoral vs pelvic appendages of highly derived taxa such as humans ( Figure 2).…”

A new species of Lasiosmylus from the Early Cretaceous, China clarifies its genus-group placement in Ithonidae (Neuroptera)

“…1A, which is the combination of two photos from both parts of the specimen in dry condition. The technique of the composite photograph in this study follows that of Béthoux (2015).…”