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      Fossil dragonflies (Odonata: Anisoptera) from the early Eocene Okanagan Highlands, western North America

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      The Canadian Entomologist
      Cambridge University Press (CUP)

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          Abstract

          We describe the first dragonflies (Odonata: Anisoptera) from the early Eocene Okanagan Highlands of far-western North America from nine fossils. Six are assigned to five species in four new, named genera of Aeshnidae: Antiquiala snyderae new genus and species, Idemlinea versatilis new genus and species, Ypshna brownleei new genus and species, Ypshna latipennata new genus and species, and Eoshna thompsonensis new genus and species; we treat one as Aeshnidae genus A, species A; one is assigned to Gomphidae: Auroradraco eos new genus and species; and we treat a ninth, fragmentary fossil of unknown family affinity as Anisoptera indeterminate genus A, species A, which represents a seventh genus and eighth species. The dominance of Aeshnidae is consistent with other Paleocene and Eocene fossil localities. Auroradraco eos is the only fossil Gomphidae in the roughly 66-million-year gap between occurrences in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber and the early Oligocene of France. Ypshna appears close to Parabaissaeshna ejerslevense from the early Eocene Fur Formation of Denmark; this is not surprising given Holarctic intercontinental connections at this time and a growing list of insect taxa shared between the Okanagan Highlands and the Fur Formation.

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          History of Insects

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            Wettability and Contaminability of Insect Wings as a Function of Their Surface Sculptures

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              Seasonality, the latitudinal gradient of diversity, and Eocene insects

              In the modern world, biotic diversity is typically higher in low-latitude tropical regions where there is abundant insolation (light and heat) and low thermal seasonality. Because these factors broadly covary with latitude, separating their possible effects on species diversity is difficult. The Eocene was a much more equable world, however, with low temperature seasonality extending into lower-insolation higher, cooler latitudes, allowing us to test these factors by comparing insect species diversity in (1) modern, temperate, low-insolation, highly seasonal Harvard Forest, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 42°29'N; (2) modern, tropical, high-insolation, low-seasonality La Selva, Costa Rica, 10°26'N, and; (3) Eocene, temperate, low-insolation, yet low-seasonality McAbee, British Columbia, Canada, above 50°N paleolatitude. We found insect diversity at McAbee to be more similar to La Selva than to Harvard Forest, with high species richness of most groups and decreased diversity of ichneumon wasps, indicating that seasonality is key to the latitudinal diversity gradient. Further, midlatitude Eocene woody dicot diversities at McAbee, Republic (Washington, U.S.A.), and Laguna del Hunco (Argentina) are also high, similar to modern tropical samples, higher than at the modern midlatitude Harvard Forest. Modern correlations between latitude, species diversity, and seasonal climates were established some time after the Eocene.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                The Canadian Entomologist
                Can Entomol
                Cambridge University Press (CUP)
                0008-347X
                1918-3240
                December 2019
                October 21 2019
                December 2019
                : 151
                : 6
                : 783-816
                Article
                10.4039/tce.2019.61
                98bcb429-0183-49b9-832a-11b50a147814
                © 2019

                https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms

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