Alienopteridae

Alienopteridae is an extinct family of dictyopterans, known from the Mid-Cretaceous to Eocene. It was originally assigned to its own order Alienoptera by Bai et al, 2016. It was subsequently reassigned to cockroach superfamily Umenocoleoidea sister family to Umenocoleidae by Vršanský et al. (2018).[1] The majority of the alienopterid genera are known from the Cenomanian aged Burmese amber found in Myanmar;[2][3][4][1][5][6] though an additional two genera (Apiblatta and Vcelesvab) are from the Albian Crato Formation (Brazil), and a younger two genera (Chimaeroblattina and Grant) are from the middle Eocene Green River Formation (Colorado, United States). Some taxa are have been suggested mimics of various hymenopterans, including bees and ants.[1] However this was mostly rejected in another study.[7] Some taxa were probably predators adapted to moving through dense foliage.[7]

Alienopteridae Temporal range: Early Cretaceous-Eocene, Albian–Middle Eocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Aethiocarenus, a presumed alienopteran nymph
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Blattodea
Superfamily:	†Umenocoleoidea
Family:	†Alienopteridae Bai et al, 2016
Type genus
†Alienopterus Bai et al, 2016
Genera
†Aethiocarenus †Alienopterella †Alienopterix †Alienopterus †Apiblatta †Caputoraptor †Chimaeroblattina †Formicamendax †Grant †Meilia †Teyia †Vcelesvab †Vzrkadlenie
Synonyms
Aethiocarenidae

Genera

• Superfamily †Umenocoleoidea Chen & Tan, 1973
  • Family †Alienopteridae Bai et al., 2016
    • †Aethiocarenus Poinar & Brown, 2016
    • †Alienopterella Kočárek, 2018
    • †Alienopterix Mlynský et al.' 2018
    • †Alienopterus Bai et al. 2016
    • †Apiblatta Barna & Bigalk, 2018
    • †Caputoraptor Bai et al., 2018
    • †Chimaeroblattina Barna, 2018
    • †Formicamendax Hinkelman, 2019
    • †Grant Aristov, 2018
    • †Meilia Vršanský & Wang, 2018
    • †Teyia Vršanský et al., 2018

References

1. Peter Vršanský; Günter Bechly; Qingqing Zhang; Edmund A. Jarzembowski; Tomáš Mlynský; Lucia Šmídová; Peter Barna; Matúš Kúdela; Danil Aristov; Sonia Bigalk; Lars Krogmann; Liqin Li; Qi Zhang; Haichun Zhang; Sieghard Ellenberger; Patrick Müller; Carsten Gröhn; Fangyuan Xia; Kyoichiro Ueda; Peter Vďačný; Daniel Valaška; Lucia Vršanská; Bo Wang (2018). "Batesian insect-insect mimicry-related explosive radiation of ancient alienopterid cockroaches". Biologia. 73 (10): 987–1006. doi:10.2478/s11756-018-0117-3.
2. Kočárek, Petr (2018). "Alienopterella stigmatica gen. et sp. nov.: the second known species and specimen of Alienoptera extends knowledge about this Cretaceous order (Insecta: Polyneoptera)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 17: 1–10. doi:10.1080/14772019.2018.1440440. ISSN 1477-2019.
3. Bai, Ming; Beutel, Rolf Georg; Klass, Klaus-Dieter; Zhang, Weiwei; Yang, Xingke; Wipfler, Benjamin (2016). "†Alienoptera — A new insect order in the roach–mantodean twilight zone". Gondwana Research. 39: 317. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2016.02.002.
4. Ming Bai; Rolf Georg Beutel; Weiwei Zhang; Shuo Wang; Marie Hörnig; Carsten Gröhn; Evgeny Yan; Xingke Yang; Benjamin Wipfler (2018). "A new Cretaceous insect with a unique cephalo-thoracic scissor device". Current Biology. 28 (3): 438–443.e1. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.12.031. PMID 29395923.
5. Jan Hinkelman (2019). "Earliest behavioral mimicry and possible food begging in a Mesozoic alienopterid pollinator". Biologia. 75: 83–92. doi:10.2478/s11756-019-00278-z.
6. Hemen Sendi; Jan Hinkelman; Lucia Vršanská; Tatiana Kúdelová; Matúš Kúdela; Marcus Zuber; Thomas van de Kamp; Peter Vršanský (2020). "Roach nectarivory, gymnosperm and earliest flower pollination evidence from Cretaceous ambers". Biologia. Online edition. doi:10.2478/s11756-019-00412-x.
7. Wipfler, Benjamin; Kočárek, Petr; Richter, Adrian; Boudinot, Brendon; Bai, Ming; Beutel, Rolf Georg (2019-10-31). "Structural features and life habits of †Alienoptera (Polyneoptera, Dictyoptera, Insecta)". Palaeoentomology. 2 (5): 465–473. doi:10.11646/palaeoentomology.2.5.10. ISSN 2624-2834.