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Paleontological Research
Abstract
Abstract.
A primitive sawfly, Madygella humioi sp. nov., belonging to the family Xyelidae (Hymenoptera: Symphyta), is newly described from the Upper Triassic Mine Group, Yamaguchi Prefecture, southwest Japan. The new species differs from the five previously known Madygella species in having a cell length of 1r plus 2r shorter than that of 3r + 4r and a cell height of 3r + 4r lower than 2r plus pterostigma in a forewing. To date, this is the oldest fossil record of sawflies in East Asia. Regarding genus Madygella, this is the first example found outside of the Kyrgyz Republic. This discovery provides an insight into the early evolution of the order Hymenoptera and suggests a widespread distribution of the pioneering genus Madygella during the Triassic period.
The authors are highly indebted to Humio Takahashi (Mine City Museum of History and Folklore) and Kenji Shinoda (Mine City) who allowed to borrow the material for studying, and to Koji Wakita (Yamaguchi University) for his valuable comments and help in the field work. Constructive critical comments by Aleksandr P. Rasnitsyn and Dmitry Kopylov were very helpful for improvement of the draft. The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude toward Yusuke Okazaki (Kyushu University), Munetoshi Maruyama (The Kyushu University Museum), and Toshiharu Mita (Kyushu University) for their valuable suggestions and comments. We also thank Hirokazu Yukawa (Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum) for allowing us to study fossil insects from the Mine Group. In addition, we would like to thank members of the Mine Fossil Museum and Mine City Museum of History and Folklore; and Syougo Yoshinaga, Yukiko Arakawa, Fumiko Inakura, and Yuko Kazitani for their support during the field work. This study was conducted with the support of The Late Professor Tatsuro Matsumoto Scholarship, and was partly supported by a JSPS KAKENHI Grant (number JP18K03827).
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