Ozymandipteryx campana, Schall & Cao & Husemann, 2025

Schall, Ole-Kristian Odin, Cao, Chengquan & Husemann, Martin, 2025, New genera and species of Ripipterygidae (Orthoptera, Tridactyloidea) from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber, Contributions to Entomology 75 (2), pp. 253-262 : 253-262

Ozymandipteryx campana sp. nov.

Figs 1 , 2

Etymology.

The species’ name is Latin for “bell”. It is meant to refer to the “Great Bell of Dhammazedi”, a treasure lost in time.

Locality and horizon.

The specimen was included in amber found in Hkamti , Sagaing Division, Myanmar or Tanai, Kachin State Burma, Myanmar, two nearby amber mining locations . The amber from Hkamti is ca. 110 My and the amber from Tanai is ca. 99 My old.

Holotype.

Sex unknown. Specimen part of the LIB-Hamburg collection; collection number GPIH 07209 (ex collection Martin Husemann MH 0082 ).

Diagnosis of species.

As for genus (monotypic).

Description.

Preservation of complete specimen, unfortunately with some parts obscured by structural damage inside the amber.

Measurements: Some measurements could not be precisely made, because the corresponding feature was somewhat obscured. Such measurements are indicated with a “ ca. ”. Body length ca. 1.72–1.76 mm (head to abdominal apex). Forewing length ca. 0.72 mm. Hindwing length ca. 1.26 mm. Head height ca. 0.5 mm. Mesofemur length 0.89 mm. Mesotibia length 0.72 mm. Mesofemur width / mesotibia width 1.18 (both at max. width). Pronotum length (dorsal) 0.42 mm. Metafemur length 1.18 mm, width 0.54 mm. Metatibia length 1.17 mm, width 0.09 mm. Length of subapical spurs 0.08 mm and of apical spurs 0.32 mm. Cercus length ca. 0.24 mm.

Head: Antennae 10 - segmented (including scape and pedicel). 10 th antennomere larger than previous and bean shaped. Compound eyes protruding from head. Ocelli not visible.

Thorax: Pronotum not prolonged over abdomen, with elevation from thorax. Both forewings and hindwings present. Hindwings not prolonged over abdomen.

Legs: Prothoracic leg: Tibia inflated. Dorsal margin with four evenly spaced hairs. No dactyls present. Tarsus very slender, with two claws.

Mesothoracic leg: Femur without hair or appendages. Tibia not inflated, with hairs on ventral margin along the entire length and also on dorsal margin towards apex. Tarsus two-segmented, bearing two claws.

Metathoracic leg: Femur greatly inflated along its entire length. Two small protrusions apically. Dorsal tibial ridge distally with slight serration proximal to subapical spurs. Two subapical and two apical spurs present. Apical spurs much longer than subapical spurs. Metatarsus not visible, either absent or too vestigial to be seen.

Abdomen: Only one cercus visible, one-segmented and cylindrical in shape. Setulose with long hair.

Remarks.

The new species can be assigned to the Ripipterygidae based on the following characters: 1) Cercus one-segmented and 2) mesotibiae not inflated. In this family, it differs from the other members found in Kachin amber by an absent or very vestigial metatarsus, a protibia without dactyls and two small protrusions on the apex of its metafemur. The protibia without dactyls is a character the new species shares with some members of fossil Tridactylidae : Burmadactylus grimaldii Heads, 2009 , Paraxya hui Cao et al., 2019 and Ellipes dominicana Poinar, 2020 . Likewise, a vestigial metatarsus is also present in some extant Tridactylidae , namely the genera Ellipes Scudder, 1902 and Xya Latreille, 1809 ( Günther 1977; Heads 2010).

Based on our current understanding of Tridactyloidea morphology, the presence of characters only known from Tridactylidae among the extant fauna in a fossil specimen that should be placed in Ripipterygidae , suggests four possible conclusions: 1) Our understanding of Tridactyloidea morphology is not complete. 2) A fully reduced metatarsus and protibia without dactyls were present for some time in the ancestors of modern Ripipterygidae , but this lineage was subsequently lost. 3) Ozymandipteryx does not actually belong to the Ripipterygidae but is instead a member of a stem-group Tridactyloidea occurring prior to the split of Tridactylidae and Ripipterygidae . 4) Ozymandipteryx is part of a separate lineage of Tridactyloidea not yet described. If one of the last two hypotheses is true, attribution of fossil Tridactyloidea from the Cretaceous may have to be reconsidered; however, this can only be validated by future findings.

Interestingly, O. campana is not the first fossil species with a fully reduced metatarsus. In the description of Magnidactylus robustus Xu et al., 2020 , the apical spurs of the specimen were interpreted as the metatarsus. But in fact, the metatarsus appears to be absent in M. robustus just like in O. campana . This finding may suggest a closer phylogenetic relationship between the two species. However, M. robustus differs from O. campana by the presence of four dactyls on its protibia, no hairs on the cerci and no apical protrusions on the metafemur. Further, M. robustus is more than three times the size of O. campana (Xu et al., 2020) . With this re-interpretation of the morphology of M. robustus , the species does not belong to the same genus as Magnidactylus mirus Gu et al., 2022 and M. gracilis Gu et al., 2022 , which both possess a normal (for Tridactyloidea ) metatarsus. We propose Yakkhapipteryx gen nov. as a new genus to house M. mirus and M. gracilis .

Figures

Figure 1. Ozymandipteryx campana gen. et sp. nov. holotype (sex unknown), collection number GPIH 07209. A. Specimen, left; B. Specimen, right; C, D. Detail of body excluding legs as image and schematic drawing. Abbreviations: hw = hindwing; ce = cercus; fw = forewing; pn = pronotum; h = head; e = compound eye; pl = prothoracic leg; an = antenna; mf = metafemur. Scale bars: 1 mm (A, B); 0.5 mm (C, D).

Figure 2. Ozymandipteryx campana gen. et sp. nov. holotype (sex unknown), collection number GPIH 07209. A, B. Detail of head, prothoracic- and mesothoracic legs as image and schematic drawing. Abbreviations: pt = protibia; mt = mesotibia; pn = pronotum; C, D. Detail of metathoracic leg and cercus as image and schematic drawing. Abbreviations: as = apical spurs; sas = subapical spurs; mtt = metatibia; ce = cercus. Scale bars: 0.5 mm.