International Geological Journal - Official Journal of the Carpathian-Balkan Geological Association

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

Published: Aug 2013

Pages: 291 - 304

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/geoca-2013-0021

Authors: DANDAN WEI, DONG REN

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 Forma- tion (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.

Keywords: Jurassic, Cretaceous, Liaoning Province, fossil insects, Blattaria, Ectobiidae, Mesoblattinidae, new genus, new species

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