Eohelea sinuosa (Meunier, 1904) (Diptera, Ceratopogonidae) in Late Eocene ambers of Europe

Differences between ceratopogonid faunas from different Late Eocene ambers are almost as great as between ant faunas and give evidence of their different geographical origins. The greatest similarity is recorded between ceratopogonid faunas of the Rovno and Danish ambers; it manifests itself, in particular, in the presence of Leptoconops, abundant Eohelea sinuosa, and rather frequent occurrence of Meunierohelea. Eohelea sinuosa is the most abundant ceratopogonid species in the Rovno amber. The abundance of Eohelea is probably accounted for by the abundance in these assemblages of small chironomids, with terrestrial larvae; which composed 40% of the Rovno amber chironomid fauna and were probably prey to Eohelea. It is shown for the first time that Ceratopogonini with feminized male antennae (with reduced plume) occur three times as often in syninclusions of specimens of both sexes (63% of all Eohelea inclusions from the Rovno amber);this is evidence that Ceratopogonini with feminized male antennae turned to mating on substrate. This supports the hypothesis of Dinwiddie and Rachootin (2011) that wing organs of female Eohelea were not used for stridulation.