Late Carboniferous insects from the Iberian Peninsula: State of the art and new taxa
Résumé
Here we present a state of the art of the Upper Carboniferous insects from the Iberian Peninsula, including new fossils of Panorthoptera (Archaeorthoptera), and of the orders Paoliida, Megasecoptera, and Palaeodictyoptera. These fossils are from Gzhelian deposits of different coalfields in León Province (Castilla y León, NW Spain). Among the insect orders, we have described the archaeorthopteran Hispanopteron romerali gen. et sp. nov., the Paoliida Simplexpaolia prokopi gen. et sp. nov., the megasecopterans Mischoptera bergidensis sp. nov. and Corydaloides leonensis sp. nov., in addition to an unnamed prothoracic winglet of palaeodictyopteran. The taxon Hispanopteron romerali is the sixth archaeorthopteran described or cited from the Iberian Peninsula, and increases the impressive diversity of the superorder. Simplexpaolia prokopi represents a new genus and species of latest Carboniferous Paoliidae and the first representative of this family in Spain. Corydaloides leonensis sp. nov. and Mischoptera bergidensis sp. nov. represent the second and third records of the order Megasecoptera in Spain, respectively, as well as the first specimens of the Corydaloididae and Mischopteridae families in the Iberian Peninsula. The deposition of these insect remains together with different fossils of plants, and the previously published evidence of diverse plant-insect interactions, suggest that the Gzhelian entomofauna found in the vegetation of these Carboniferous forests had already occupied numerous ecological niches under a tropical climate. In addition, we have carried out the review of all insect remains, and evidence of plant-insect interactions found so far from the Carboniferous of the Iberian Peninsula, observing a higher diversity than expected.