Elisama kacerovae, Sendi, 2025

Sendi, Hemen, 2025, A new species of Elisama Giebel, 1856 (Blattaria: Blattulidae) discovered in mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber of northern Myanmar, Zootaxa 5590 (4), pp. 579-586 : 581

Elisama kacerovae sp. nov. ( Fig. 1 )

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:F31E7C9B-F56F-4312-9326-C5BD2450D44F

Description. Adult cockroach of unknown sex, 10.45 mm from head to hindwing apex and 4.02 mm wide. Head darkly colored and wide (2.06 mm wide) with large compound eyes (0.54/ 0.49 mm). Antennae filiform and thin (each fillament ca. 0.13/ 0.03 mm). Pronotum vaulted (2.31/ 2.88 mm) and translucent with two symmetrical dark stripes.

Forewing elongated (7.70/ 2.27 mm), translucent and projected beyond abdomen. Wing margins almost parallel. Sc simple. R large, consisting of 9 veins resembling comb-like pattern, last two branches forked. Stem somewhat thickened near base and highly curved into S-shape. M rich with 5 branches in total. Basal branch forked near base and both branches forked again distally, last branch simple. CuA reduced up to 4 veins. Basal branch highly curved, forked earlier than M, one of the following branches forked again, other two branches simple. CuP simple and strongly curved. Clavus with 5–6 simple, strongly curved A veins. Intercalary veins abundant across wing membrane. Dark macula present near CuA.

Hindwings projected beyond forewings (~ 7.47 mm long). R1 thickened and comb-like with at least 4 visible veins. Distal part of RS, M, CuA veins straight and traceable with at least 10 veins.

Mid- and hindlegs cursorial. Femora with very large genicular spine (0.69 mm long). Tibia bearing at least two anteroventral spines (0.38 mm long).

Material. Holotype. Collection No. SNM Z 40767 , deposited at the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava , Slovakia.

Type locality and horizon. Hukawng Valley , Kachin, northern Myanmar, Cenomanian, mid-Cretaceous .

Differential diagnosis. The specimen can be distinguished from other species of Elisama in the smaller size, pronotum coloration with dark stripes in the middle and translucent nota and M stem near the R stem until the central half. E. cuboides Wang et al., 2007 is similar in having pronotal coloration, but the stripes are posteriorly parallel in respect to each other. Based on the morphological differences and the fact that other species of Elisama are of considerable different age and locality, there is enough evidence to classify the fossil as a new species.

Derivation of name. The species is named after Júlia Káčerová, who has made multiple impressive works and illustrations on Mesozoic cockroaches and other insects.

Characteristics of preservation. Almost completely preserved adult cockroach, brownish in color. Distal parts of antennae not preserved, the amber piece is ending here. Details in ventral view barely visible. An alate termite (4.80/ 0.91 mm) is attached centro-ventrally of the body. The amber is honey-colored with tiny inclusions, probably detritus or cysts, similar as in Hinkelman & Vršanská (2020).

Figures

FIGURE 1 Elisama kacerovae sp. nov., (holotype SNM Z 40767) from Hukawng Valley, North Myanmar amber.A: Photograph of dorsal view of the specimen. B: Illustration of dorsal view of the specimen with wing venation abbreviations on the left forewing. C: Ventral view. Scale bars are 1 mm.