Free Standard AU & NZ Shipping For All Book Orders Over $80!
Register      Login
Invertebrate Systematics Invertebrate Systematics Society
Systematics, phylogeny and biogeography
RESEARCH ARTICLE

The oldest representative of the Trichomyiinae (Diptera : Psychodidae) from the Lower Cenomanian French amber studied with phase-contrast synchrotron X-ray imaging

Malvina Lak A B , Dany Azar C E , André Nel D E , Didier Néraudeau A and Paul Tafforeau B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Géosciences Rennes, UMR CNRS 5118, 263 av. du Général Leclerc, F-35042 Rennes Cedex, France.

B European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, BP 220, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.

C Lebanese University, Faculty of Sciences II, Department of Biology, Fanar - Matn - PO Box 26110217, Lebanon.

D CNRS UMR 5202, Muséum National d’histoire Naturelle, CP 50, Entomologie, 45 rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France.

E Corresponding authors. Email: azar@mnhn.fr; anel@mnhn.fr

Invertebrate Systematics 22(4) 471-478 https://doi.org/10.1071/IS08008
Submitted: 22 February 2008  Accepted: 22 July 2008   Published: 14 October 2008

Abstract

Trichomyia lengleti, sp. nov., is described from the Lower Cenomanian amber of La Buzinie, Charente (south-west France) from a piece of fully opaque amber. The Upper Albian Trichomyia swinhoei Cockerell, 1917 is transferred from the Trichomyiinae to the Sycoracinae incertae sedis, stat. nov. Trichomyia lengleti, sp. nov. is the oldest representative of the subfamily Trichomyiinae, supporting at least a Cretaceous diversification for the Psychodidae. The discovery of this fossil fly and its study (thanks to propagation-phase-contrast synchrotron X-ray imaging) improves our knowledge of the biodiversity and the historical evolution of psychodoid flies. A checklist of fossil trichomyiine species is given.

Additional keywords: Charente, Cretaceous amber, south-west France.


Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Alain Couillard, who discovered the amber deposit of La Buzinie, and to Thierry Lenglet who collected the amber piece containing the Psychodidae. We are also grateful to the ESRF and the ID19 staff for their help in synchrotron imaging. Lastly we thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful criticism of the first version of the manuscript. This work is supported by the French Research Agency (ANR), project ‘AMBRACE’ n° BLAN07–1-184190. This paper is a contribution to the project ‘The Study of the Fossil Insects and their Outcrops: Geology of the Outcrops – Historical and Biodiversity Evolution’ accorded by the Lebanese University to DA.


References


Ansorge J. (1994) Tanyderidae and Psychodidae (Diptera) from the Lower Jurassic of Northeastern Germany. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 68, 199–210. open url image1

Ansorge J. (1996) Eotonisca tertiaria Meunier, 1905 (Psychodidae) aus dem Sachsischer Bernstein. Studia Dipterologica 3, 195–199. open url image1

Azar D., Nel A. (2002) New Cretaceous psychodid flies from Lebanese amber and Santana Formation (Chapada do Araripe, Brazil). (Diptera). Annales de la Société Entomologique de France (N.S.) 38, 253–262. open url image1

Azar D., Nel A. (2003) Fossil Psychodoid flies and their relation to parasitic diseases. Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz suppl. 1 97, 35–37. open url image1

Azar D., Ziadé K. (2005) Xenopsychoda harbi, a new psychodoid fly from the Lower Cretaceous amber of Lebanon (Diptera; Psychodoidea). Comptes Rendus. Palévol 4, 25–30.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Azar D., Adaymeh C., Jreich N. (2007a) Paleopsychoda zherikhini, a new Cretaceous species of moth flies from Taimyr amber (Diptera: Psychodidae: Psychodinae). African Invertebrates 48, 163–168. open url image1

Azar D., Tahchy A., Perrichot V. (2007b) The oldest Sycoracinae (Diptera: Psychodidae) from the French Cretaceous amber. Alavesia 1, 5–10. open url image1

Azar D., Nel A., Solignac M., Paicheler J.-C., Bouchet F. (1999) New genera and species of phlebotomid and psychodid flies from the Lower Cretaceous amber of Lebanon (Insecta: Diptera: Phlebotomidae, Psychodidae). Palaeontology 42, 1101–1136.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Azar D., Perrichot V., Néraudeau D., Nel A. (2003) New psychodid flies from the Cretaceous ambers of Lebanon and France, with a discussion about Eophlebotomus connectens Cockerell, 1920 (Diptera, Psychodidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 96, 117–127.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Bravo F. (1999) Septemtrichomyia, subgenero novo de Trichomyiinae neotropical (Diptera: Psychodidae). Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 43, 1–7. open url image1

Bravo F. (2001) Opisthotrichomyia, new subgenus of Trichomyiinae (Diptera, Psychodidae) with descriptions of three new species from Brazil. Sitientibus Serie Ciencias Biologicas 1, 50–55. open url image1

Blagoderov V. A. , Grimaldi D. A. , and Fraser N. C. (2007). How time flies for flies: diverse Diptera from the Triassic of Virginia and early radiation of the order. American Museum Novitates 3572.

Cockerell T. D. A. (1917) Fossil insects. Appendix. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 10, 19–22. open url image1

Duckhouse D. A. (1965) Psychodidae of Southern Australia, subfamilies Bruchomyiinae and Trichomyiinae. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 117, 329–343. open url image1

Duckhouse D. A. (1972) Psychodidae (Diptera, Nematocera) of South Chile, subfamilies Sycoracinae and Trichomyiinae. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 124, 231–268. open url image1

Duckhouse D. A. (1978) Taxonomy, phylogeny and distribution of the genus Trichomyia (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Australia and New Guinea. Systematic Entomology 3, 197–243.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Duckhouse D. A. (1980) Trichomyia species (Diptera: Psychodidae) from Southern Africa and New Zealand, with a discussion of their affinities and of the concept of monophyly in southern hemisphere biogeography. Annals of the Natal Museum 24, 177–191. open url image1

Edwards F. W. (1929) A note on the amber moth-fly Eophlebotomus connectens Cockerell. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3, 424–425. open url image1

Evenhuis N. L. (1994). ‘Catalogue of the fossil flies of the World (Insecta: Diptera).’ (Backhuys Publishers: Leiden, The Netherlands.)

Fraser N. C., Grimaldi D. A., Olsen P. E., Axsmith B. (1996) A Triassic Lagerstätte from eastern North America. Nature 380, 615–619.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Haliday A. H. (1839). ‘British Entomology; Being Illustrations and Descriptions of the Genera of Insects found in Great Britain and Ireland: Containing Coloured Figures from Nature of the Most Rare and Beautiful Species, and in Many Instances of the Plants Which they are Found, Volume 16’. (Ed. J. Curtis.) pl. 722–769. (Privately published: London, UK.)

Hennig W. (1972) Insektenfossilien aus der unteren Kreide. IV. Psychodidae (Phlebotominae), mit einer kritischen Übersicht über das phylogenetische System der familie und die bisher beschriebenen Fossilien (Diptera). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde B 241, 1–69. open url image1

Jung H. F. (1954) Einige neue mitteleuropäische Psychodiden (Diptera). Zoologischer Anzeiger 152, 16–31. open url image1

Jung H. F. (1956) Beiträge zur Biologie, Morphologie und Systematik der europäischen Psychodiden (Diptera). Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 3, 97–257. open url image1

Jung H. F. (1958). Psychodidae-Trichomyiinae. In ‘Die Fliegen der Palaerktischen Region’. (Ed. E. Linder.) pp. 1–16. (Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung: Stuttgart, Germany.)

Lak M., Néraudeau D., Nel A., Cloetens P., Perrichot V., Tafforeau P. (2008) Phase contrast X-ray Synchrotron Imaging: opening access to fossil inclusions in opaque amber. Microscopy and Microanalysis 14, 251–259.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

McAlpine J. F. (1981). Morphology and terminology – adult. In ‘Manual of Nearctic Diptera. Vol. 1, Monograph No. 27’. (Eds J. F. McAlpine, B. V. Peterson, G. E. Shewell, H. J. Teskey, J. R. Vockeroth and D. M. Wood.) pp. 9–63. (Research Branch, Agriculture Canada: Ottawa, Canada.)

Nel A., Menier J.-J., De Ploëg G. (2002) The oldest representative of the Trichomyiinae from the Lowermost Eocene amber of the Paris Basin (France) (Diptera: Psychodidae). Annales de la Société Entomologique de France (N.S.) 38, 247–252. open url image1

Néraudeau D., Thierry J., Moreau P. (1997) Variations of echinoids biodiversity during the Cenomanian-Early Turonian transgressive episode in Charentes (France). Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France 168, 51–61. open url image1

Perrichot V., Nel A., Néraudeau D. (2007a) Schizopterid bugs (Insecta: Heteroptera) in mid-Cretaceous ambers from France and Myanmar. Palaeontology 50, 1367–1374.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Perrichot V., Néraudeau D., Nel A., De Ploëg G. (2007b) A reassessment of the Cretaceous amber deposits from France and their palaeontological significance. African Invertebrates 48, 213–227. open url image1

Satchell G. H. (1956) On the genus Trichomyia (Psychodidae) with descriptions of four new species. Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London B 25, 147–156. open url image1

Tafforeau P., Boistel R., Boller E., Bravin A., Brunet M., Chaimanee Y., Cloetens P., Feist M, Hoszowska J., Jaeger J.-J., Kay R. F., Lazzari V., Marivaux L, Nel A., Nemoz C., Thibault X., Vignaud P., Zabler S (2006) Applications of X-ray synchrotron microtomography for non-destructive 3D studies of paleontological specimens. Applied Physics A Materials Science and Processing 83, 195–202.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Tonnoir A. L. (1922) Note sur le genre Nemopalpus (Psychodidae) et description d’une espèce nouvelle. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique 62, 125–136. open url image1

Vaillant F. (1978) Contribution à l’étude des Sycorax [Dipt. Psychodidae] de la France. Entomologiste 34, 70–77. open url image1

Wagner R. (1997). Family Psychodidae. In ‘Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Vol. 2: Nematocera and Lower Brachycera’. (Eds L. Papp and B. Darvas.) pp. 205–226. (Science Herald: Budapest, Hungary.)

Wagner R. (2002) A remarkable new species and genus of moth-flies (Diptera, Psychodidae, Psychodinae) from Dominican amber. Studia Dipterologica [Eine bemerkenswerte neue Schmetterlingsmückenart und gattung (Diptera, Psychodidae, Psychodinae) aus dem Dominikanischen Bernstein] 8, 423–426. open url image1

Wagner R. (2006) Amber Bruchomyiinae – descriptions of already known and new species, and the position of the ‘subfamily’ within Psychodidae (s. l.) (Diptera). Studia Dipterologica 13, 83–95. open url image1










Appendix 1.  Checklist of fossil Trichomyiinae
N.B. Trichomyia swinhoei Cockerell, 1917 has been omitted from the list as this species undoubtedly belongs to the subfamily Sycoracinae
Click to zoom