''Sepulca'' is an extinct genus of stem sawflies in the family

Sepulcidae Sepulcidae is an extinct family of stem sawflies in the order Hymenoptera. The family is known primarily from late Mesozoic fossils found in 1968 in Transbaikalia. The insects were distant relatives of modern sawflies and are part of the living ...

. The genus ''Sepulca'' was identified by

Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn (Russian: Александр Павлович Расницын) is a Russian entomologist, expert in palaeoentomology, and Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation (2001). His scientific interests are centered on ...

. It was named by his colleague and a science-fiction author

Kirill Eskov Kirill Yuryevich Eskov (russian: Кири́лл Ю́рьевич Есько́в; born 16 September 1956) is a Russian writer, biologist and paleontologist. As an author he is known for '' The Gospel of Afranius'' in which he presents an atheistic ...

after fictional entities called ''

sepulki Sepulkas, also renditioned as sepulcas, and called scrupts in English translation,"Scrupts"
at the FAQ page of Lem's off ...

'', found in Stanisław Lem's ''

The Star Diaries , image = File:TheStarDiaries.jpg , caption = First edition , author = Stanisław Lem , translator = ''English:'' Michael Kandel , illustrator = Stanisław Lem , cover_artist = Marian Stachurski , country = Poland , language = Polish, Engli ...

'' and ''

Observation on the Spot ''Observation on the Spot'' (Polish ''Wizja lokalna'', with the common meaning of the expression being crime scene reconstruction) is a social science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem. The novel is a report of Ijon Tichy's travel to a faraway pl ...

''. The relation to Lem's ''sepulki'' is understandable in both Polish and Russian, but their English translation obscures their association with ancient insects as they are translated as ''Scrupts'' in English editions of Lem's novels. ''Sepulca'' includes two species, as well as a number of subspecies. Rasnitsyn A.P. Sepulcidae and origin of Cephidae (Hymenoptera: Cephoidea). In: Tobias V.I. (ed.). ''Taxonomy of insects and mites.'' Trans. All-Union Entomol. Soc. Nauka Press, Moscow. 1988. 70: 480-497

Species

These two species belong to the genus ''Sepulca'': * † '' Sepulca mirabilis'' Rasnitsyn, 1968 * † ''

Sepulca mongolica ''Sepulca'' is an extinct genus of stem sawflies in the family Sepulcidae. The genus ''Sepulca'' was identified by Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn. It was named by his colleague and a science-fiction author Kirill Eskov after fictional entities cal ...

'' Rasnitsyn, 1993

References

Sawflies Prehistoric insect genera Commemoration of Stanisław Lem {{Paleo-insect-stub