''Euglossopteryx'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

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 ...

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Apidae Apidae is the largest family within the superfamily Apoidea, containing at least 5700 species of bees. The family includes some of the most commonly seen bees, including bumblebees and honey bees, but also includes stingless bees (also used for ...

known from a fossil found in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. There is one described species in the genus, ''Euglossopteryx biesmeijeri''.

History and classification

''Euglossopteryx biesmeijeri'' was described from a solitary fossil, which is a compression-impression fossil preserved in layers of soft

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic matter, organic particles at Earth#Surface, Earth's surface, followed by cementation (geology), cementation. Sedimentati ...

rock. Along with other well preserved insect fossils, the ''E. biesmeijeri'' specimen was collected from layers of 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 Creek Member 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 ...

. The formation is a group of Late Paleocene to Late Eocene depositional basins in Wyoming and Utah. The Parachute Creek Member is a composed of oil shales from a shallow mountain lake that existed for around 20 million years. Study of the paleoflora preserved in the shales indicates the lake was around in elevation surrounded by a tropical to subtropical environment that had a distinct dry season. At the time of study, the holotype was part of the Division of Entomology (Paleoentomology) collections, University of Kansas Natural History Museum. It was first studied by an international team of researchers headed by Manuel Dehon of the

University of Mons The University of Mons (french: Université de Mons) is a Belgian university located in the city of Mons, founded in 2009 by merging the Engineering Faculty of Mons (FPMs) and the University of Mons-Hainaut. The merging of the institutions wa ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, with the teams 2014

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 genus and species was published in the

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

journal '' PLOS ONE''. The genus name is a derived from a combination of the

Euglossini The tribe (biology), tribe Euglossini, in the subfamily Apinae, commonly known as orchid bees or euglossine bees, are the only group of Pollen basket, corbiculate bees whose non-parasitic members do not all possess Eusociality, eusocial behavior. ...

type genus ''

Euglossa ''Euglossa'' is a genus of orchid bees (Euglossini). Like all their close relatives, they are native to the Neotropics; an introduced population exists in Florida. They are typically bright metallic blue, green, coppery, or golden. ''Euglossa in ...

'' combined with the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

"pteryx" meaning ''wing''. This is a reference to the similarity between ''Euglossopteryx biesmeijeri'' and species of ''Euglossa''. 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 ...

''biesmeijeri'' was coined as a

patronym A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

honoring the Belgian melittologist Jacobus Biesmeijer, who is a noted researcher of pollinator-plant interactions and pollinator declines. The body and wing structuring indicate a relationship to members of the bee clade Corbiculata, which encompasses the living tribes

Apini A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmo ...

Bombini The Bombini are a tribe of large bristly apid bees which feed on pollen or nectar. Many species are social, forming nests of up to a few hundred individuals; other species, formerly classified as ''Psithyrus'' cuckoo bees, are brood parasites ...

Meliponini Stingless bees, sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees (about 550 described species), comprising the tribe Meliponini (or subtribe Meliponina according to other authors). They belong in the family A ...

and the extinct tribes Melikertini, Electrapini, and Electrobombini. The preserved

pollen basket The pollen basket or corbicula (plural corbiculae) is part of the tibia on the hind legs of certain species of bees. They use the structure in harvesting pollen and carrying it to the nest or hive. Other species of bees have scopae instead. Ety ...

on the metatibia excluded placement of ''E. biesmeijeri'' into a cleptoparasitic

Cuckoo bee The term cuckoo bee is used for a variety of different bee lineages which have evolved the kleptoparasitism, kleptoparasitic behaviour of laying their eggs in the nests of other bees, reminiscent of the behavior of cuckoo birds. The name is perhap ...

genus. Within Corbiculata, Apini has a distinct wing marginal cell and Meliponini has very reduced wing venation, neither features seen in ''E. biesmeijeri''. The wing venation of the species is closest to that seen in Euglossini, however the metatibia is not highly expanded as seen in Euglossini. As such Dehon ''et al'' did not give any placement in the clade, leaving ''Euglossopteryx'' as Corbiculata ''

incertae sedis ' () or ''problematica'' is a term used for a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

''. ''E. biesmeijeri'' is one of four bee species described by Dehon and team in the ''PLOS ONE'' article, the others being ''

Andrena antoinei ''Andrena antoinei'' is an extinct species of mining bee in the family Andrenidae described from a single fossil found in a Late Oligocene lake in present-day France that existed in semi-arid conditions. History and classification ''A. antoinei ...

'', ''

Bombus cerdanyensis ''Bombus cerdanyensis'' is an extinct species of bumble bee in the family Apidae known from a fossil found in Europe. History and classification ''Bombus cerdanyensis'' was described from a solitary fossil, which is a compression-impression fos ...

'', and ''

Protohabropoda pauli ''Protohabropoda'' is an extinct genus of bees in the family Apidae known from a fossil found in Europe. The genus currently contains a single described species ''Protohabropoda pauli''. History and classification ''P. pauli'' was described fro ...

''.

Description

The ''E. biesmeijeri'' fossil is a female preserved with a dorsal view of the body, out stretched wings, and missing its head. The overall body length is not determinable due to slight curling of the body and the missing head, though the

mesosoma The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings. In hymenopterans of t ...

is . The metatibia are about long, not flared and enlarged notably, and with a distinct corbiculate pollen basket formed of a fringe of long

setae In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. Th ...

. The original coloration and color pattering has been lost, so color pattern and if the color was metallic as in Euglossini species. The forewings have a one marginal cell and three cells below that called the submarginal cells. The marginal cell had a closed tip end that is notably rounded. The second and third submarginal cells together are longer than the first submarginal cell, which is the longest of the three cells. A

pterostigma The pterostigma (plural: pterostigmata) is a group of specialized cells in the outer insect wing, wings of insects, which are often thickened or coloured, and thus stand out from other cells. It is particularly noticeable in dragonfly, dragonfli ...

is present, but it incompletely preserved making observations difficult.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q21798173 † Fossil taxa described in 2014 Prehistoric insects of North America Fossil bee taxa Eocene insects Fossil bee genera