''Elephantomyia (Elephantomyia) irinae'' 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) irinae'' is known from five male insects, 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 MP/3324, and four additional flies which are preserved as inclusions in transparent Baltic amber. As of 2015, the amber specimens were included in the collections of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

. 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. irinae'' is one of six crane fly species in the genus '' Elephantomyia'' described from the Baltic amber, the others being '' E. baltica'', '' E. brevipalpa'', '' E. bozenae'', '' 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 five specimens were first studied by paleoentomologist Iwona Kania, of the

University of Rzeszów The University of Rzeszów is a university in Rzeszów, Poland. The patron of the university is Saint Queen Jadwiga of Poland. It was officially established in 2001 by combining several older institutions in the city. The current university co ...

, whose 2015

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 ...

for the species was published in the journal ''PLoS ONE''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''irinae'' was coined to honor the biologist Irina D. Sukatsheva.

Description

The ''E. irinae'' type specimen is a well preserved male that is approximately long, not including the

rostrum Rostrum may refer to: * Any kind of a platform for a speaker: **dais **pulpit * Rostrum (anatomy), a beak, or anatomical structure resembling a beak, as in the mouthparts of many sucking insects * Rostrum (ship), a form of bow on naval ships * Ros ...

. The head has a rostrum that is long, just over half the length of the fore-wing and shorter than the abdomen. The tip of the rostrum has elongate

palpus Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the second pair of appendages of chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") and ...

at the tip. Each palpus is composed of four segments, with the basal three segments long and the apical segment short. The antennae are small, composed fifteen segments. They have an elongated scape and widened

pedicle Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

. The first of the

flagellomere Antennae ( antenna), sometimes referred to as "feelers", are paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods. Antennae are connected to the first one or two segments of the arthropod head. They vary widely in form but are always made of one o ...

s and segments third to fifteen are all elongated while the second is notably short. Flagellomeres two to fourteen all have three setae on them that are longer than the segment bearing them. Flagellomere fifteen has four setae also longer than the segment. The wings are between long 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 D cell, as designated by the

Comstock–Needham system The Comstock–Needham system is a naming system for insect wing veins, devised by John Comstock and George Needham in 1898. It was an important step in showing the homology of all insect wings. This system was based on Needham's ''pretracheatio ...

, is not as elongated and narrowed as in ''E. bozenae'' having a length to width ratio of only 1.5 to 1, while ''E. bozenae'' has a 2 to 1 ratio.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q22285067 Limoniidae Prehistoric insects of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2015 Diptera of Europe Eocene insects Baltic amber