Coxoplectoptera

Coxoplectoptera or "chimera wings" is a primitive, extinct order of winged insects containing one family, Mickoleitiidae, discovered in 2007.

Two adult and more than 20 larval fossils of Mickoleitia have been scientifically described from Mesozoic outcrops, mainly from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil (in total, around 40 fossil larvae have been found). Coxoplectoptera belong to the stem group of mayflies. Winged adults and the aquatic larvae were predators with raptorial forelegs, which are reminiscent to those of praying mantids. The larvae had a peculiar freshwater shrimp-like habitus.

Etymology

The genus Mickoleitia and family Mickoleitiidae was named in honor of German zoologist Gerhard Mickoleit from the University of Tübingen, who was among the first proponents of Willi Hennig's "Phylogenetic Systematics". The scientific name of the order Coxoplectoptera refers to the prolonged coxal segment of the larval and adult legs, and the old scientific name Plectoptera for mayflies (not to be confused with Plecoptera for stoneflies). The common name "chimera wings" was coined in reference to the strange combination of characters in the morphology of the adult animal, which looks like a kind of chimera built from unrelated insects, with their oblique thorax and broad hind wing shape like a dragonfly, their wing venation like a primitive mayfly ancestor, and their raptorial forelegs like a mantis.