REPLY TO “COMMENT ON MARDEN (2013) REGARDING THE INTERPRETATION OF THE EARLIEST TRACE FOSSIL OF A WINGED INSECT”

Benner, Knecht, and Engel have replied to my critique of their interpretation of a Carboniferous trace fossil produced by an insect at the edge of water. Here I respond by pointing out that their reiterated scenario still requires mutually exclusive paths of motion and I show that their assertions of methodological shortcomings are tangential and lack merit. Overall, this discussion provides an opportunity to examine in greater detail competing hypothesis about behaviors and taxonomic identity of the trace maker, and relevance thereof to competing theories regarding early events in the evolution of pterygote insects.     

Two new genera and two new species of Mantophasmatodea (Insecta, Polyneoptera) from Namibia

Two new species and two new genera (Pachyphasma, Striatophasma) of Mantophasmatodea are described from Namibia. Pachyphasma brandbergense is endemic to the Brandberg massif; Striatophasma occupies an extensive area south of the region inhabited by Mantophasma. Phylogenetic analyses (see Predel et al. in press) suggest a sistergroup relationship of Striatophasma and the South African Austrophasmatidae.     

Visual and olfactory input segregation in the mushroom body calyces in a basal neopteran, the American cockroach

The cockroach Periplaneta americana is an evolutionary basal neopteran insect, equipped with one of the largest and most elaborate mushroom bodies among insects. Using intracellular recording and staining in the protocerebrum, we discovered two new types of neurons that receive direct input from the optic lobe in addition to the neuron previously reported. These neurons have dendritic processes in the optic lobe, projection sites in the optic tracts, and send axonal terminals almost exclusively to the innermost layer of the MB calyces (input site of MB). Their responses were excitatory to visual but inhibitory to olfactory stimuli, and weak excitation occurred in response to mechanosensory stimuli to cerci. In contrast, interneurons with dendrites mainly in the antennal lobe projection sites send axon terminals to the middle to outer layers of the calyces. These were excited by various olfactory stimuli and mechanosensory stimuli to the antenna. These results suggest that there is general modality-specific terminal segregation in the MB calyces and that this is an early event in insect evolution. Possible postsynaptic and presynaptic elements of these neurons are discussed.     

Insects in the Red Middle Permian of Southern France: first Protanisoptera (Odonatoptera) and new Caloneurodea (Panorthoptera), with biostratigraphical implications

The Permian odonatopteran Protanisoptera are discovered for the first time in the playa palaeoenvironments of Gonfaron and Lodève (Southern France). The new genus and species Bansheepteron gonfaronensis is erected and described on the basis of a distal half of a wing from the Guadalupian of Gonfaron. It is compared with all the previously described protanisopterans. Another specimen consisting of a basal half of a wing from the Guadalupian of Lodève, attributed to cf. Bansheepteron gonfaronensis, is also described. Furthermore, three new panorthopteran Caloneurodea are described from the Early to Middle Permian (Cisuralian and Guadalupian) of Southern France, viz. Gallogramma galadrieli gen. et sp. nov. from the le Luc Basin (Gonfaron, Var), and Paleuthygramma cf. acuta Carpenter, 1943 from the Lodève Basin (Hérault). These new fossils increase the palaeodiversity of the Caloneurodea, an interesting clade which now gathers six species in the red Permian of the Southern France, making it one of the most diverse clade in these palaeoenvironments after the Odonatoptera. The present discoveries better support a Guadalupian age for the Gonfaron Formation, even if a Late Cisuralian affinities remains possible.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:1955790C-EA66-4137-9300-3E1B76C1585F

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:0E77F461-6096-4567-8477-AA3D0D1037D3

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:1D6DE829-BB0D-4EDA-9707-BFF442581601     

"古翅类"系统发育关系研究进展(昆虫纲,有翅类)

古翅类的系统发育问题是六足总纲中有争议的热点问题之一。对现存古翅类(孵蝣目 蜻蜒目)与新翅类之间的系统发育关系有3种主要观点：古翅类(＝蜉蝣目 蜻蜒目) 新翅类,蜉蝣目 (蜻蜒目 新翅类),蜻蜒目 (蜉蝣目 新翅类)。第1种观点得到化石、形态和部分基因证据支持,第2种观点得到较多形态特征支持,支持第3种观点的证据较少。这一问题的解决有赖于更多昆虫种类、化石以及分子证据的发现和研究。     

现存蜉蝣翅基纵脉走向及愈合模式(昆虫纲：蜉蝣目)

有翅昆虫翅基纵脉的走向及愈合模式在系统发育重建中占有重要地位。然而,现存蜉蝣翅基纵脉的走向及愈合状况在大部分种类变化极大,无法推测其原始状况,只在极少数种类保留有部分可见残迹。中国拟短丝蜉Siphluriscus chinensis的翅基保留有独立的亚前缘脉弓、部分中脉M和肘脉Cu主干以及前中脉MA及径分脉Rs的走向痕迹。据此并结合红斑蜉Ephemera rufomaculata 和大网脉蜉Chromarcys magnifica翅基的相关特征,本文提出了蜉蝣目主要纵脉基部走向及愈合的基本模式,其要点有：中脉主干在基部与径脉主干独自发出后先接近或愈合后又分离、它们各自分成两支后的前中脉及径分脉又先愈合再分离、肘脉始终独立。这种中脉与径脉先接近或愈合后分离的模式非常接近新翅类的情况而与蜻蜓很不相同(在蜻蜓,中脉与肘脉在基部愈合) 。亚前缘脉弓的作用相信是加强了因翅基骨板发达而相互远离的纵脉间的连结作用。这个假说也可以来解释蜻蜓复杂脉相的形成原因。     

A general theory of genital homologies for the Hexapoda (Pancrustacea) derived from skeletomuscular correspondences,with emphasis on the Endopterygota

No consensus exists for the homology and terminology of the male genitalia of the Hexapoda despite over a century of debate. Based on dissections and the literature, genital skeletomusculature was compared across the Hexapoda and contrasted with the Remipedia, the closest pancrustacean outgroup. The pattern of origin and insertion for extrinsic and intrinsic genitalic musculature was found to be consistent among the Ectognatha, Protura, and the Remipedia, allowing for the inference of homologies given recent phylogenomic studies. The penis of the Hexapoda is inferred to be derived from medially-fused primary gonopods (gonopore-bearing limbs), while the genitalia of the Ectognatha are inferred to include both the tenth-segmental penis and the ninth-segmental secondary gonopods, similar to the genitalia of female insects which comprise gonopods of the eighth and ninth segments. A new nomenclatural system for hexapodan genitalic musculature is presented and applied, and a general list of anatomical concepts is provided. Novel and refined homologies are proposed for all hexapodan orders, and a series of groundplans are postulated. Emphasis is placed on the Endopterygota, for which fine-grained transition series are hypothesized given observed skeletomuscular correspondences.