''Baltimartyria'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of primitive metallic moths in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Micropterigidae Micropterigoidea is the superfamily of "mandibulate archaic moths", all placed in the single family Micropterigidae, containing currently about twenty living genera. They are considered the most primitive extant lineage of lepidoptera (Kristense ...

. The genus is solely known from the

Early Eocene In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age (geology), age or lowest stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by th ...

Baltic amber Baltic amber or succinite is amber from the Baltic region, home of its largest known deposits. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that this forested region provided the re ...

deposits in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

region of Europe. The genus currently contains two described species, ''Baltimartyria proavitella'' and ''Baltimartyria rasnitsyni''.

''B. proavitella''

The

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known fossil was originally studied and described by

Hans Rebel Hans Rebel (2 September 1861 – 19 May 1940) was an Austrian entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. Rebel, who had an early interest in natural history and butterflies, first became a lawyer. He devoted his spare time to studying Lepidopt ...

of the

Austrian Academy of Sciences The Austrian Academy of Sciences (; ÖAW) is a legal entity under the special protection of the Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every fi ...

Vienna, Austria Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. Rebel named the species ''Micropterix proavitella'', thinking it belonged to the modern genus ''

Micropterix ''Micropterix'' is a genus of small primitive metallic moths, in the family Micropterigidae within the insect order Lepidoptera. The name was raised by the German entomologist, Jacob Hübner in 1825 and comes from the Greek for ''mikros'', litt ...

''. Rebel published his description of the species in 1936. The fossil was reexamined in 1995 by the Polish entomologist Andrzej W. Skalski, who recognized the species was not a member of ''Micropterix'' and moved the species to the new genus ''Baltimartyria''.

''B. rasnitsyni''

The second species of ''Baltimartyria'' described from Baltic amber is ''B. rasnitsyni'' which, like ''B. proavitella'', is known from a single specimen. The holotype is included in the

paleoentomology The most recent understanding of the evolution of insects is based on studies of the following branches of science: molecular biology, insect morphology, paleontology, insect taxonomy, evolution, embryology, bioinformatics and scientific computing ...

collections of the

Museum für Naturkunde The Natural History Museum () is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major museums in Germany alongside Naturm ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, as specimen MB.I 5950. The holotype specimen is a complete male moth, included in a transparent section of amber with its

wings A wing is a type of fin that produces both lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-drag ratio, which compares the bene ...

partly spread. Due to the positioning of the body the right antenna and right maxillary palps are not visible, while the top and inner sides of the genitalia are partly coated in a white coating. Overall the specimen has a body length of and has a fore-wing length of . ''B. rasnitsyni'' is distinguishable from ''B. proavitella'' by characters of the wing vein structure and the maxillary palps. While the R vein branches in ''B. proavitella'' all originate separately from the cell, whereas the R₄ and R₅ veins originate from a single vein that forks on the apex side of the cell. The species was described and named by Wolfram Mey in a 2011 paper published in the online and print journal ''

ZooKeys ''ZooKeys'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering zoological taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography. It was established in 2008 and the founding editor-in-chief was Terry Erwin (Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian ...

''. Mey notes that the type specimen had been sitting on his desk for a number of years prior to description. The

generic Generic or generics may refer to: In business * Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark * Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...

placement was not recognized by Mey until Skalski's 1995 redescription of ''B. proavitella''. Mey chose the specific epithet ''rasnitsyni'' to honor the eminent Russian paleoentomologist,

Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn () is a Russian entomologist, expert in palaeoentomology, and Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation (2001). His scientific interests are centered on the palaeontology, phylogeny, and taxonomy of hymenopteran ins ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4852754

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species or languages). It is one of the mo ...

Eocene insects of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1995 Fossil taxa described in 2011 Fossil taxa described in 1935 Fossil Lepidoptera

Baltic amber Ypresian insects Prehistoric insect genera

Ypresian genera