New dragonflies and damselflies from Middle Miocene deposits in SW Bulgaria (Insecta: Odonata)

Abstract

The first fossil Odonata discovered in Bulgaria are described and illustrated, i.e., the aeshnid Oligaeschna bulgariensis sp. nov., the sieblosiid Stenolestes rhodopensis sp. nov., and the dysagrionid Primorilestes magnificus sp. nov. These genera are present in both Western Europe and Siberia in the Neogene. Their fossil discoveries in Bulgaria provide a link between these two regions, which are now disconnected.

The Cephalozygoptera, a new, extinct suborder of Odonata with new taxa from the early Eocene Okanagan Highlands, western North America

“…Primorilestes madseni is redrawn from Rust et al (2008, their Subsequent definitions of Dysagrionidae. Some or all of the above genera and sometimes Thaumatoneura, Eodysagrion Rust et al, and others have been grouped in various family configurations, including in the Agrionidae, Amphipterygidae, Pseudolestidae, Megapodagrionidae, as subfamilies of Thaumatoneuridae (Dysagrioninae and Thaumatoneurinae: e.g., Bechly 1996;Nel et al 2005aNel et al , 2005bNel & Arillo 2006), or of the Dysagrionidae (Dysagrioninae, Thaumatoneurinae and Eodysagrioninae: Rust et al 2008;Dysagrioninae, Burmadysagrioninae and Eodysagrioninae: Zheng et al 2016a, 2016b, 2017and independent of Thaumatoneura and Eodysagrion: Garrouste & Nel 2015;Nel et al 2016;Huang et al 2017). Bechly (1996) distinguished the taxon as Dysagrioninae (within Thaumatoneuridae: Dysagrion, Petrolestes, Phenacolestes and Congqingia) by quadrangle shape as its single defining trait, although he did not describe this, and noted that it is also present in Sieblosiidae.…”

First fossil jewel beetle (Insecta: Coleoptera: Buprestidae) from Middle Miocene deposits in Bulgaria

“…Based on the total content of the macroflora from all layers of the Sivik Formation, Bozukov (2002) has determined its age as Middle Miocene. That dating was also confirmed by the pollen analysis (Ivanov, 2004(Ivanov, , 2012(Ivanov, , 2013 and accepted in Nel et al (2016) and Simov et al (2021). Since the studied fossil insects ori- Description.…”

“…The studied fossil specimens were collected during the palaeobotanical expeditions in the region of Satovcha in the period 1958-1967, and in the beginning of the 1980s (Nel et al, 2016, Simov et al, 2021.…”

“…The present contribution is a continuation of the study of the fossil insects from deposits of the Satovcha Basin dated to the Middle Miocene. Up to now, the fossil dragonflies and March flies were investigated from the region (Nel et al, 2016;Simov et al, 2021).…”

New dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) from the late Oligocene of Enspel (Rhineland-Palatinate, SW Germany)

“…The genera Oligaeschna, Epiaeschna, and Ictinogomphus were already recorded from other European outcrops. The presence of a stem Sieblosiidae is especially interest-ing because this family is currently only known from Eurasian Oligocene-Miocene paleolakes and seems to be typical of these periods and paleogeographical area (Nel et al, 2005a;Nel et al, 2016). They are not present among the odonatan fauna of the Eocene of Messel or North America, where they seem to be 'replaced' by other large, damselfly-like Odonata (Garrouste and Nel, 2015).…”