Insects in the Red Middle Permian of Southern France: first Protanisoptera (Odonatoptera) and new Caloneurodea (Panorthoptera), with biostratigraphical implications

Abstract

The Permian odonatopteran Protanisoptera are discovered for the first time in the playa palaeoenvironments of Gonfaron and Lodève (Southern France). The new genus and species Bansheepteron gonfaronensis is erected and described on the basis of a distal half of a wing from the Guadalupian of Gonfaron. It is compared with all the previously described protanisopterans. Another specimen consisting of a basal half of a wing from the Guadalupian of Lodève, attributed to cf. Bansheepteron gonfaronensis, is also described. Furthermore, three new panorthopteran Caloneurodea are described from the Early to Middle Permian (Cisuralian and Guadalupian) of Southern France, viz. Gallogramma galadrieli gen. et sp. nov. from the le Luc Basin (Gonfaron, Var), and Paleuthygramma cf. acuta Carpenter, 1943 from the Lodève Basin (Hérault). These new fossils increase the palaeodiversity of the Caloneurodea, an interesting clade which now gathers six species in the red Permian of the Southern France, making it one of the most diverse clade in these palaeoenvironments after the Odonatoptera. The present discoveries better support a Guadalupian age for the Gonfaron Formation, even if a Late Cisuralian affinities remains possible.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:1955790C-EA66-4137-9300-3E1B76C1585F

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:0E77F461-6096-4567-8477-AA3D0D1037D3

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:1D6DE829-BB0D-4EDA-9707-BFF442581601

Keywords:

• Arthropoda
• Insecta
• Odonatoptera
• Neoptera
• Cisuralian
• Guadalupian
• gen. et sp. nov
• stratigraphy

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank two anonymous referees for their very useful comments on the first version of the paper. We sincerely thank the Municipality of Gonfaron for the field authorizations and the volunteer team of the Musée d’Histoire naturelle de Toulon et du Var for their help on the field. We also thank Sylvain Pont for the ESEM images from MNHH Collection SEM facilities.