The Polycytellidae viewed as Gondwanan Glosselytrodea

Olivier Bethoux (1) , John M Anderson

1 CR2P - Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie - Paris

The material of Glosselytrodea from the Molteno Formation (Triassic, South Africa), consisting of two specimens, is herein studied. A preliminary comparative analysis is conducted based on the new material and new data on Polycytella triassica Tillyard, 1922 (Triassic, Australia), highlighting the relevance of the width of the area anterior to RA (particularly, opposite the end of ScP), an area very broad in Polycytella Tillyard, 1922, Argentinoglosselytrina Martins-Neto and Gallego, 2001 (Triassic, Argentina) and in the new material from the Molteno. An emended diagnosis of the Polycytellidae is elaborated accordingly. The material from the Molteno is assigned to Polycytella rasnitsyni gen. et sp. nov. and Moltenojurina parva gen. et sp. nov., the latter being the smallest Glosselytrodea known to date. As newly delimited, the Polycytellidae are strictly Gondwanan.

Keywords: Molteno; Triassic; South Africa; Gondwana; fossil; insect; new taxa; elytrization; RTI; Molteno

Domains: Populations and Evolution [q-bio.PE]; Systematics, Phylogenetics and taxonomy; Paleontology

Olivier Bethoux, John M Anderson. The Polycytellidae viewed as Gondwanan Glosselytrodea. Palaeoentomology, 2021, 4, pp.550-558. ⟨10.11646/palaeoentomology.4.6.5⟩. ⟨mnhn-03480458⟩