Bombycites oeningensis is an extinct lepidopteran from the Messinian (7-5 million years ago) of Öhningen, Switzerland.[1] It is described in 1849 from a fossil pupa by the Swiss geologist and naturalist Oswald Heer.[2] Because neither the adult nor larval forms are known, either of which contain crucial diagnostic features, its familial and superfamilial placement is uncertain.[3][4]

Bombycites
Temporal range: Upper Miocene
Artist's reconstruction
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: incertae sedis
Genus: Bombycites
Heer, 1849
Species:
B. oeningensis
Binomial name
Bombycites oeningensis
Heer, 1849

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "Perhaps the richest Miocene insect deposits in Europe are from Oeningen in Switzerland and Radoboj in Croatia. Fossils from these localities were extensively monographed by Oswald Heer." (David Grimaldi, Michael S. Engel, 2005, Evolution of the Insects p.89).
  2. ^ Heer, in series Neue Denkschriften der Allgemeinen Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für die gesammten Naturwissenschaft, 1849.
  3. ^ "Bombycites". Paleobiology Database. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  4. ^ Butterflies and Moths of the World (2023). "Bombycites Heer, 1849 . "Insektenfauna Tertiärgebilde Oeningen und Radoboj in Croatien" (2) : 183". The Natural History Museum. doi:10.5519/s93616qw. Retrieved November 13, 2011.

Further reading

edit