A new dysagrionid damselfly (Odonata: Zygoptera: Palaeodysagrion) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber

Abstract

AUTHOR, N. & AUTHOR, P. December 2017. Article title. Alcheringa 42, 301-305. ISSN 0311-5518. Dysagrionidae are common in Paleogene sedimentary rocks, but rarely recorded in the Mesozoic. This family, however, is diverse in Burmese amber. A new dysagrionid damselfly, Palaeodysagrion youlini Zheng, Chang & Chang sp. nov., is described here based on a well-preserved specimen (holotype) in Burmese amber. The new damselfly provides wing apex and body characters for Palaeodysagrion. It differs from Palaeodysagrion cretacia in having Arc slightly distal of Ax2, the midfork slightly basal of the nodus, Cr and Sn almost perpendicular to RA and RP and in having a simple wing system. This is the fourth dysagrionid damselfly described from the Burmese amber.

Daran Zheng* [[email protected]], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210,008, PR China; Su-Chin Chang [[email protected]]*, Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, PR China; Bo Wang† [[email protected]], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210,008, PR China. *Also affiliated with: Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, PR China. †Also affiliated with: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100,101, PR China.

Key words:

• Palaeodysagrion
• dysagrionidae
• Zygoptera
• late Albian
• Cretaceous
• Burmese amber

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgements

We offer our sincere gratitude to the editors of Alcheringa and two anonymous reviewers for the very useful comments on the earlier version of the manuscript.