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The Lower Cretaceous male of Lebanoculicoides daheri – belonging to the earliest lineage of biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2019

Art Borkent
Art Borkent*
Affiliation:
Royal British Columbia Museum, 691-8th Ave. SE, Salmon Arm, British Columbia, V1E 2C2, Canada; American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West & 79th Street, New York, New York, 10024, United States of America
*
Corresponding author (e-mail: artborkent@telus.net)
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Abstract

Re-examination of the male biting midge of Lebanoculicoides daheri Choufani, Azar, and Nel (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), in 127 million-year-old Lebanese amber, revealed further features and details of morphological, phylogenetic, and bionomic importance. The phylogenetic position of the fossil genus Lebanoculicoides Szadziewski as the sister group of all remaining extant and extinct Ceratopogonidae is confirmed. A revised key to all four known species of this genus is provided. A permanently erect antennal plume is hypothesised as an additional synapomorphy of Austroconops Wirth and Lee and two Cretaceous fossil genera, Minyohelea Borkent and Archiaustroconops Szadziewski. The presence of a hind tibial comb and more distal row of spines is considered a synapomorphy of all Culicomorpha other than Chironomidae, with some secondary losses within this group.

Type
Systematics and Morphology
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 151 , Issue 3 , June 2019 , pp. 278 - 290
Copyright
© Entomological Society of Canada 2019 

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Footnotes

Subject editor: Bradley Sinclair

References

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