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| Perissoclothoda myrrhokaris Chen & Zhang, 2023 |
Highlights:
• New Mesozoic species is the second species which lacks a ventral bridge.
• Family Clothodidae is more primitive than all other Embiodea.
• Discovery of new species further supports that by the mid-Cretaceous a broad swath of embiodean diversity may have been in place.
Abstract
A new Mesozoic webspinner (Embiodea) is described and figured based on a moderately well-preserved male in mid-Cretaceous (earliest Cenomanian) amber from northern Myanmar. Perissoclothoda myrrhokaris gen. et sp. nov. is the second fossil representative of the putatively primitive family Clothodidae. It differs from the Cretaceous and more recent Embiodea in several plesiomorphic characters, namely a quadrate mentum, approximately oval submentum, subgenae not meet medially (thus a ventral bridge or gula is lacking), completely symmetrical terminalia, and dimerous cerci. This new find sheds further light on the diversity and morphological disparity of fossil webspinners during the Late Mesozoic.
Keywords: Burmese amber, Cenomanian, Clothodidae, Embioptera, New species, Taxonomy
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Habitus of Perissoclothoda myrrhokaris Chen and Zhang, sp. nov. |
Systematic palaeontology
Order: Embiodea Kusnezov, 1903.
Suborder: Clothododea Engel & Grimaldi, 2006.
Infraorder: Clothodomorpha Engel et al. 2016.
Family: Clothodidae Enderlein, 1909.
Genus: †Perissoclothoda gen. nov.
Etymology. The new generic name is derived from a combination of the Greek perisso, meaning, ‘unusual-’, and the generic name Clothoda Enderlein (itself from Greek, klotho, meaning, ‘twist’ or ‘spin’), type genus of the family. The gender of the name is feminine.
†Perissoclothoda myrrhokaris Chen and Zhang, sp. nov.
Etymology. The specific epithet is a combination of the Greek word of ‘myrrha’ meaning ‘an aromatic gum-resin’ and ‘kara’ meaning ‘head’.
Xinyu Chen and Huachuan Zhang. 2023. A New plesiomorphic Species of Webspinner (Embiodea, Clothodidae) from mid-Cretaceous Kachin Amber of northern Myanmar. Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology. 26(2), 102060. DOI: 10.1016/j.aspen.2023.102060
