''Elephantomyia (Elephantomyia) baltica'' is an extinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

crane fly Crane fly is a common name referring to any member of the insect family Tipulidae. Cylindrotominae, Limoniinae, and Pediciinae have been ranked as subfamilies of Tipulidae by most authors, though occasionally elevated to family rank. In the mo ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Limoniidae. The species is solely known from the

Middle Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "d ...

Baltic amber The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposit of amber, called Baltic amber or succinite. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that these forests created more than 1 ...

deposits in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and fr ...

region of Europe. The species is one of six described from Baltic amber.

History and classification

''Elephantomyia (Elephantomyia) baltica'' is known from the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

specimen, collection number 282, a solitary complete adult which has been preserved as an inclusion in transparent Baltic amber. As of 2015, the amber specimen, number 282, was included in the collections of the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded i ...

. Baltic amber is recovered from fossil bearing rocks in the Baltic Sea region of Europe. Estimates of the age date between 37 million years old, for the youngest sediments and 48 million years old. This age range straddles the middle Eocene, ranging from near the beginning of the Lutetian to the beginning of the Pribonian. ''E. baltica'' is one of six crane fly species in the genus '' Elephantomyia'' described from the Baltic amber, the others being '' E. brevipalpa'', '' E. bozenae'', '' E. irinae'', '' E. longirostris'', and '' E. pulchella''. All six species are placed into the ''Elephantomyia'' subgenus ''Elephantomyia'' based on the lack of tibial spurs and by several aspects of the wing morphology. The fossil was first studied by entomologist

Charles Paul Alexander Charles Paul Alexander (September 25, 1889, Gloversville, New York - December 3, 1981) was an American entomologist who specialized in the craneflies, Tipulidae. Charles Paul Alexander was the son of Emil Alexander and Jane Alexander (née Parker ...

of the

Massachusetts Agricultural College The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

, with his 1931

type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have ...

of the new species being published in his monograph ''Crane flies of the Baltic Amber (Diptera)''. The fossil was reexamined and the species redescribed in 2015 by paleoentomologist Iwona Kania of the University of Rzeszów.

Description

The ''E. baltica'' specimen is a well preserved male with an overall length of , not including the rostrum and an overall brown coloration. The head has a rostrum that is long, as long as the fore wing and longer than the abdomen, baring elongate palpus at the tip. Each palpus is composed of four segments all having a system of microtrichia hairs, and three of the four are elongate cylinders with the fourth being short. The antennae are small, composed of a cylindrical scape and widened pedicle. As the flagellomeres progress from the base to the tip of the antennae they change from squat and crowded together to elongated and having two hairs on each flagellomere. The wings are with a pale brown

pterostigma The pterostigma (plural: pterostigmata) is a group of specialized cells in the outer wings of insects, which are often thickened or coloured, and thus stand out from other cells. It is particularly noticeable in dragonflies, but present also in ...

that is oval in shape. The Rs vein, as designated by the Comstock–Needham system, is shorter than the connected R₂₊₃₊₄

References

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q20817816 Limoniidae Prehistoric insects of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1931 Diptera of Europe Eocene insects Baltic amber