Lodevohymen lapeyriei, Prokop, Jakub & Nel, Andre, 2011

Prokop, Jakub & Nel, Andre, 2011, New Middle Permian palaeopteran insects from Lodeve Basin in southern France (Ephemeroptera, Diaphanopterodea, Megasecoptera), ZooKeys 130, pp. 41-55 : 47-48

Lodevohymen lapeyriei sp. n. Figs 5 A–B

Material.

Holotype LdLAP 556 (imprint of nearly complete wing, basal part not well preserved, Lapeyrie collection), stored at the Musée of Lodève, France.

Type strata and locality.

Middle Permian, Lodève Basin, Salagou Formation, Les Canals, Lodève Basin, Hérault, France ( Garric 2000; Béthoux et al. 2002).

Description.

Wing elongated and basally narrow with no trace of coloration preserved, wing fragment about 16.5 mm long, estimated length about 19.5 mm width 4.2 mm in widest part; anterior margin nearly straight, ScP straight ending to C close to wing apex; areas between costal margin and ScP and ScP and RA rather broad; stem of R basally connected to M diverging 1/3 of wing length; division of RA and RP about 8.5 mm from the wing base, RA simple and straight ending in wing apex; RP pectinate with five branches ending on posterior wing margin, crossveins organized in rows between branches of RP; simple MA strongly diverges from MP 1.2 mm from division of stems R and M, and well connected with RP for distance; MP, CuA separates from CuP near wing base, CuA and M basally fused and closely parallel to R, separating 3.0 mm from base of CuA; CuA and CuP simple and straight with a few crossveins between them; anal area reduced, one anal vein present close the wing base.

Discussion.

Lodevohymen shares with the diaphanopterodean taxa Asthenohymen Tillyard, 1924 (including Karoohymen Riek, 1976) ( Asthenohymenidae Tillyard, 1924) and Biarmohymen Zallesky, 1937 ( Biarmohymenidae Zallesky, 1937), but also with the megasecopteran taxa Permohymen Tillyard, 1924, Ivahymen Martynov, 1932, Protohymen Tillyard, 1924 ( Protohymenidae Tillyard, 1924), Scytohymen Martynov, 1937, Oceanoptera Shcherbakov, 2009 (in Shcherbakov et al. 2009), and Tshekardohymen Rohdendorf, 1940 ( Scytohymenidae Martynov, 1937), the presence of basal fusion of M with CuA ( Carpenter 1992; Riek 1976; Shcherbakov et al. 2009). This important character together with a very similar pattern of venation present in all these taxa would suggest that their attribution to different orders is weakly supported.

Nevertheless Lodevohymen strongly differs from all these taxa in the broad areas between C and ScP and between ScP and RA without apical ‘pterostigma’ -like structure. Other Diaphanopterodea and Megasecoptera have not a long fusion CuA-M in basal part of wing ( Carpenter 1992).

The genus Sunohymen Hong, 1985, currently included into the Protohymenidae , shares with Lodevohymen the rather broad areas between C and ScP and RA, but they differ in RP with only two branches in the former. Also all its structures of basal half of wing are unknown, so that its attribution to the Protohymenidae , family in which M is basally fused to CuA, remains undemonstrated ( Hong 1985).

Lodevohymen is obviously strongly different from all other Diaphanopterodea and Megasecoptera .

Lodevohymen could be better attributed to the Diaphanopterodea rather than to the Megasecoptera for the strong convexity of the basally connected veins R, M, and CuA, forming a curve. Nevertheless, as already noted by Carpenter (1992), it is very difficult to attribute isolated wings of this kind to one of these two orders. It is better to avoid creating a new family as the phylogeny of these two orders is still to be done and the limits of the described families not clearly defined.