''Ororaphidia'' 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 ...

snakefly Snakeflies are a group of predatory insects comprising the order Raphidioptera with two extant families: Raphidiidae and Inocelliidae, consisting of roughly 260 species. In the past, the group had a much wider distribution than it does now; snak ...

containing two species: the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

''Ororaphidia megalocephala'' and ''Ororaphidia bifurcata''.

History and classification

Doctors Michael S. Engel and Dong Ren first studied and described ''Ororaphidia'' and the co-occurring '' Styporaphidia'' and in 2008, publishing a formal description in the ''

Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society The ''Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Kansas Entomological Society. The journal has a 2009 impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an ...

'' volume 81. The genus name comes from the Greek ''oros'' meaning "mountain" and ''

Raphidia ''Raphidia'' is a genus of snakefly, mainly found in Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

'', the type genus for, and most often used as, a stem for generic names in the order Raphidioptera. The species name is a combination of the Greek words ''megalose'' meaning "very large" and ''kephale'' meaning "head" and is in reference to the notably large size of the head capsule compared to other raphidiopterans.

Description

The genus is known from only the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, a single female specimen, deposited in the Department of Biology,

Capital Normal University Capital Normal University (CNU; 首都师范大学) is a municipal public university in Beijing, People's Republic of China, China. It is affiliated with the City of Beijing and co-funded by the Beijing Municipal People's Government and the M ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

as specimen number NNS-200201. Preserved as a

compression fossil A compression fossil is a fossil preserved in sedimentary rock that has undergone physical compression. While it is uncommon to find animals preserved as good compression fossils, it is very common to find plants preserved this way. The reason f ...

, the female individual is fossilized in a resting position giving a top view to the body and wings. The ''Ororaphidia'' holotype was found in the near Daohugou Village,

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

, China from the

Jiulongshan Formation The Haifanggou Formation (), also known as the Jiulongshan Formation (), is a fossil-bearing rock deposit located near Daohugou () village of Ningcheng County, in Inner Mongolia, northeastern China. The formation consists of coarse Conglomerate ( ...

. The formation is dated as early

middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period (geology), Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 161.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relativel ...

, specifically

Aalenian The Aalenian () is a subdivision of the Middle Jurassic Epoch/Series of the geologic timescale that extends from about 174.7 ±0.8 Ma to about 170.9 ±0.8 Ma (million years ago). It was preceded by the Toarcian and succeeded by the Bajocian. St ...

Bajocian In the geologic timescale, the Bajocian is an age and stage in the Middle Jurassic. It lasted from approximately 170.9 ±0.8 Ma to around 168.2 ±1.2 Ma (million years ago). The Bajocian Age succeeds the Aalenian Age and precedes the Bathonia ...

in age. This dating places ''Ororaphidia'' and ''Styporaphidia'' as the oldest raphidiopterans known from China. Excluding the

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typica ...

which is short and does not pass the wingtips, ''Ororaphidia'' is and has a forewing length of . The head is longer than it is wide and is slightly longer than the

prothorax The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum ( ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ...

. ''Ororaphidia'' has wing venation which while superficially similar to some '' Mesoraphidia'' genera, it can be distinguished by a number of differences including a

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 ...

l cross vein and the noticeably short

References

Raphidioptera Fossil taxa described in 2008 Middle Jurassic insects Jurassic insects of Asia Taxa named by Michael S. Engel {{jurassic-insect-stub