''Emiliana'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

planthopper A planthopper is any insect in the infraorder Fulgoromorpha, in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, a group exceeding 12,500 described species worldwide. The name comes from their remarkable resemblance to leaves and other plants of their environment ...

in the

Tropiduchidae Tropiduchidae is a family of planthoppers in the order Hemiptera. There are at least 160 genera and 600 described species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of ...

tribe Emilianini and containing the

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

species ''Emiliana alexandri''. The species is known only from the

Middle Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "dawn ...

Parachute Member, part of the

Green River Formation The Green River Formation is an Eocene geologic formation that records the sedimentation in a group of intermountain lakes in three basins along the present-day Green River in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The sediments are deposited in very fine ...

, in the Piceance Creek Basin, Garfield County, northwestern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, USA.

History and classification

''Emiliana alexandri'' is known only from one fossil, the part and counterpart

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

, specimen number "PIN no. 4621/546". The specimen is composed of a single isolated

tegmen A tegmen (plural: ''tegmina'') designates the modified leathery front wing on an insect particularly in the orders Dermaptera ( earwigs), Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets and similar families), Mantodea (praying mantis), Phasmatodea (stick an ...

which is preserved as a

compression fossil A compression fossil is a fossil preserved in sedimentary rock that has undergone physical compression. While it is uncommon to find animals preserved as good compression fossils, it is very common to find plants preserved this way. The reason fo ...

in sedimentary rock. The fossil was recovered by David Kohls of

Colorado Mountain College Colorado Mountain College (CMC) is a public community college with multiple campuses in western Colorado. Founded in 1965, the institution offers numerous associate degrees, seven bachelor's degrees and a variety of career-technical certificates. ...

and A. P. Rasnitsyn of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

from outcrops of the

s Parachute Member exposed in the Anvil Points area of

Garfield County, Colorado Garfield County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,685. The county seat is Glenwood Springs. The county is named in honor of United States President James A. Garfield. Garfield Count ...

, USA. The type specimen is currently preserved in the paleoentomology collections housed in the

Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences The Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences (PIN; russian: Палеонтологический институт РАН) in Moscow is among the world's largest paleontological institutes. An affiliate of the Russian Academy of Scienc ...

, located in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, Russia. ''Emiliana'' was first studied by Dmitry Shcherbakov of the Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences with his 2006

type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...

of the tribe, genus and species being published in the ''Russian Entomological Journal''. The

generic Generic or generics may refer to: In business * Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark * Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...

name was coined by Shcherbakov in recognition of the world authority in planthoppers, A. F. Emeljanov, with the tribe name being a derivative of the genus name. The

etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...

of the

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''alexandri'' is in reference to Emeljanov's first name Alexandr. When ''Emiliana alexandri'' was described it displaced the genus '' Jantaritambia'', which is known from Baltic Amber specimens, as the oldest member of Tropiduchidae to be described from the fossil record, being 10 million years older than ''Jantaritambia''. The genus is noted to be similar to the modern tropiduchid genera '' Neommatissus'', '' Paricana'', '' Pseudoparicana'', and '' Paricanoides''.

Description

The ''E. alexandri'' type specimen is a well-preserved almost complete adult fore-wing, called a

which is long. The tegmen is preserved with a mostly pale or possibly

hyaline A hyaline substance is one with a glassy appearance. The word is derived from el, ὑάλινος, translit=hyálinos, lit=transparent, and el, ὕαλος, translit=hýalos, lit=crystal, glass, label=none. Histopathology Hyaline cartilage is ...

coloration with both the wing base and wing tip darkened. The forking of the Cu vein occurs much closer to the vein base then in other members of the family. Also the merging of the MP and CuA veins is distinct to the genus. ''Emiliana'' possess a crossvein, the ''cup-pcu'' is seen only in the extinct monotypic tribe Jantaritambiini.

References

Eocene insects Fossil taxa described in 2006 † Prehistoric insects of North America † {{Fulgoromorpha-stub