Male terminalia and their rotation in Tanyderidae (Insecta, Diptera, Nematocera) since the Mesozoic

ABSTRACT

The structure of the male terminalia and their rotation are reviewed in both extinct and extant genera of Tanyderidae based on new observations and literature. The structure of gonostyli and parameres and the size of cerci show greater variation among extinct taxa than among the extant ones. A bifid aedeagus occurs in representatives of both tanyderid subfamilies, the modern nannotanyderine Peringueyomyina (and probably in Eocene Coramus) and the extinct tanyderines Macrochile and Similinannotanyderus. A trifid aedeagus, common in modern tanyderines, and a rare simple undivided aedeagus both appear to have evolved from it. The Triassic family Nadipteridae, supposedly ancestral to Tanyderidae, already displays rotation of male terminalia, suggesting that the latter is extremely ancient in Diptera and was probably inherited by Tanyderidae. Tanyderid genera vary in the presence of the rotation, number of involved segments and angle of rotation. Apparently it has been secondarily lost multiple times in the family. An astonishing similarity between the male hypopygia of extinct and extant Nannotanyderinae and that of the psychodid subfamily Horaiellinae is additionally discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Primitive crane fly
• hypopygium
• amber inclusions
• relict family
• Gondwana

Acknowledgments

The author is deeply indebted to Dmitry Shcherbakov (Borissiak Paleontological Institute RAS, Moscow) for the great opportunity to collect Tanyderidae in Tasmania and to Cathy Byrne and Simon Grove (both – Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart) for hospitality and invaluable help in facilitating field work of Russian team in Tasmania. I thank Roman Rakitov (Borissiak Paleontological Institute RAS, Moscow) for assistance in taking scanning electron images, insightful comments on the early version of manuscript and linguistic advice, Olga Ovchinnikova (Zoological Institute RAS, St-Petersburg), Tatiana Galinskaya (Moscow State University) and Vladimir Lantsov (Institute of Ecology of Mountain Territories, Nalchik) for valuable discussions. I am deeply indebted to Lea Grauvogel-Stamm (French National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris) for the opportunity to work with material collected by her father Louis Grauvogel and for the hospitality during the visit to Strasbourg. I am grateful to Dong Ren (Capital Normal University, Beijing), Wiesław Krzemiński and Kornelia Skibińska (Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals PAS, Kraków) and Mike Mostovski (Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg; now Tel Aviv University) for loaning specimens for study, and to Jorg Ansorge (Landesamt für Kultur und Denkmalpflege Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwerin) for useful comments on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported in part by grants from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project nos. 13-04-01839 and 16-04-01498. The visit to Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, PAS, Kraków was supported by grant from the National Science Centre of Poland No. UMO–2016/23/B/NZ8/00936.