The oldest representative of the Trichomyiinae (Diptera : Psychodidae) from the Lower Cenomanian French amber studied with phase-contrast synchrotron X-ray imaging

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doi:10.1071/IS08008

The oldest representative of the Trichomyiinae (Diptera : Psychodidae) from the Lower Cenomanian French amber studied with phase-contrast synchrotron X-ray imaging

Malvina Lak ^A ^B, Dany Azar ^C ^E, André Nel ^D ^E, Didier Néraudeau ^A, Paul Tafforeau ^B

^A Géosciences Rennes, UMR CNRS 5118, 263 av. du Général Leclerc, F-35042 Rennes Cedex, France.
^B European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, BP 220, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
^C Lebanese University, Faculty of Sciences II, Department of Biology, Fanar - Matn - PO Box 26110217, Lebanon.
^D CNRS UMR 5202, Muséum National d’histoire Naturelle, CP 50, Entomologie, 45 rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France.
^E Corresponding authors. Email: azar@mnhn.fr; anel@mnhn.fr





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Invertebrate Systematics 22(4) 471–478 http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/IS08008
Submitted: 22 February 2008 Accepted: 22 July 2008 Published online: 14 October 2008

Abstract

Trichomyia lengleti, sp. nov., is described from the Lower Cenomanian amber of La Buzinie, Charente (south-west France) from a piece of fully opaque amber. The Upper Albian Trichomyia swinhoei Cockerell, 1917 is transferred from the Trichomyiinae to the Sycoracinae incertae sedis, stat. nov. Trichomyia lengleti, sp. nov. is the oldest representative of the subfamily Trichomyiinae, supporting at least a Cretaceous diversification for the Psychodidae. The discovery of this fossil fly and its study (thanks to propagation-phase-contrast synchrotron X-ray imaging) improves our knowledge of the biodiversity and the historical evolution of psychodoid flies. A checklist of fossil trichomyiine species is given.

Keywords: Charente, Cretaceous amber, south-west France.