Archocyrtus is an extinct genus of small-headed flies in the family Acroceridae. The genus is known from compression fossils from the Late Jurassic Karabastau Formation of Kazakhstan.[1] The genus is the only member of the subfamily Archocyrtinae.[3]
Archocyrtus Temporal range:
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Diptera |
Family: | Acroceridae |
Subfamily: | †Archocyrtinae Ussatchov, 1968 |
Genus: | †Archocyrtus Ussatchov, 1968 |
Type species | |
†Archocyrtus gibbosus Ussatchov, 1968
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Species | |
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Synonyms[1] | |
Juracyrtus Nartshuk, 1996[2] |
A study on the holotype specimen of Archocyrtus kovalevi was published by Khramov & Lukashevich (2019). They reported evidence of an extremely long proboscis, almost twice the length of the body of the insect. They suggested that it was probably a pollinator of extinct seed plants belonging to the order Bennettitales.[4]
Species
editTwo species belong to the genus Archocyrtus:
References
edit- ^ a b c Gillung, Jessica P.; Winterton, Shaun L. (2017). "A review of fossil spider flies (Diptera: Acroceridae) with descriptions of new genera and species from Baltic Amber". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 16 (4): 325–350. doi:10.1080/14772019.2017.1289566. S2CID 90493326.
- ^ a b Nartshuk, E. P. (1995). "A new fossil acrocerid fly from the Jurassic beds of Kazakhstan (Diptera: Acroceridae)". Zoosystematica Rossica. 4 (2): 313–315.
- ^ Gillung, Jessica P.; Winterton, Shawn L. (2019). "Evolution of fossil and living spider flies based on morphological and molecular data (Diptera, Acroceridae)". Systematic Entomology. 44 (4): 820–841. doi:10.1111/syen.12358.
- ^ Khramov, Alexander V.; Lukashevich, Elena D. (2019). "A Jurassic dipteran pollinator with an extremely long proboscis". Gondwana Research. 71: 210–215. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2019.02.004. S2CID 134847380.