''Fibla carpenteri'' is an extinct species of
snakefly
Snakeflies are a group of Predation, predatory insects comprising the order (biology), order Raphidioptera with two extant families: Raphidiidae and Inocelliidae, consisting of roughly 260 species. In the past, the group had a much wider distrib ...
in the
Inocelliidae
Inocelliidae is a small family of snakeflies containing 8 genera of which one is known only from fossils. They are commonly known as inocelliid snakeflies. The largest known species is ''Fibla carpenteri'' known from fossils found in baltic amb ...
genus ''
Fibla''.
''F. carpenteri'' is named in honor of the paleoentomologist
Dr Frank Carpenter, for his vast knowledge and interest in Raphidioptera.
The species is known from a single specimen, the
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 ...
, deposited in the
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, Museum of Comparative Zoology as specimen #9999. Dr.
Michael S. Engel first studied and described the species after finding the specimen in the Harvard collections. He published his
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 ...
in the journal ''
Psyche
Psyche (''Psyché'' in French) is the Greek term for "soul" (ψυχή).
Psyche may also refer to:
Psychology
* Psyche (psychology), the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious
* ''Psyche'', an 1846 book about the unconscious by Car ...
'' volume 102 published in 1995.
Fairly well preserved in
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...
Baltic amber
The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposit of amber, called Baltic amber or succinite. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that these forests created more than 1 ...
, the female individual has a torn forewing missing the distal portion, partial antennae, and the
ovipositor
The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typical ...
is severed and missing the tip. There are also a number of small areas with "schimmel", a type of white mold sometimes present on arthropods in amber.
With a total length, not including ovipositor or antennae, of just over , ''Fibla carpenteri'' is the largest species of snakefly from amber and the largest species of the genus.
As a whole the female shows no light color marking and was a fairly uniform dark brown to black coloration. The wings are
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 ...
with brown coloration of the vein structure and are slightly