Sciara gurnetensis Cockerell, 1915

Dale E. Greenwalt, Daniel J. Bickel, Peter H. Kerr, Gregory R. Curler, Brian V. Brown, Herman de Jong, Scott J. Fitzgerald, Torsten Dikow, Michal Tkoč, Christian Kehlmaier & Dalton De Souza Amorim, 2019, Diptera of the middle Eocene Kishenehn Formation. I. Documenting of diversity at the family level, Paleontologia Electronica 22 (2), No. 50, pp. 1-56 : 23

Sciara gurnetensis Cockerell, 1915 , reassigned Figure 19.1

Material examined. Holotype, USNM 61435 , housed in the National Museum of Natural History , Washington, D.C., USA.

Type horizon. Bembridge Marls , UK, latest Eocene

Type locality. Gurnard Bay , Isle of Wight, UK

Remarks

Sciara gurnetensis was described, but not figured, by Cockerell (1916) as an isolated wing, 3.4 mm in length. However, the apical portion of the wing is deformed; its width is 1.27 mm. None of the veins have macrotrichia or remnants thereof. R 1 and R 4+5 are 0.6 and 0.9 of the wing length. Both the base of M and the cubital stem are shorter than cross vein r-m; the stem and fork of M are 1.2 mm and 1.5 mm long, respectively (4:5). The very long “cubital fork” (actually M 4 originating very basally in the wing) in this species and in S. lacoei is seen in a few Cecidomyiidae , the rangomaramid genera Ohakunea , Colonomyia etc. and some mycetophilids. It is impossible to establish Sciara gurnetensis as a member of Sciaridae let alone Sciara . We, therefore, assign S. gurnetensis to Sciaroidea incertae sedis.