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Monotypic prehistoric insect genera

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Triamyxa
Triamyxa is an extinct genus of myxophagan beetle in the monotypic family Triamyxidae from the Carnian stage of Late Triassic, approximately 230 million years ago. It was found in the Keuper Claystone of Poland. The type species is Triamyxa coprolithica and it was identified from specimens found in the coprolite ZPAL AbIII/3520, likely belonging to the dinosauriform Silesaurus opolensis. Because Triamyxa specimens were found inside coprolites, this may offer a new method of finding insect fossils aside from amber. It is currently the oldest known member of Myxophaga. It was interpreted as
Coleopsis
Coleopsis is an extinct genus of stem-group beetles. It contains a single species, Coleopsis archaica, and is the only member of the family Coleopsidae and superfamily Coleopsoidea. It is known from a single specimen from the Early Permian of southwestern Germany, estimated to be about 297 million years old. It is currently the oldest known beetle.
Mazothairos
Mazothairos (from Mazo, derived from its location of Mazon Creek and θαιρός, thairos, meaning 'hinge' in Greek) is an extinct genus of very large insect that lived during the Carboniferous period. It was a member of the order Palaeodictyoptera. Although it is only known from very fragmentary remains from a single fossil, it is estimated to have had a wingspan of around 56 centimeters, making it one of the largest-known insects, only being rivaled in size by the largest members of the order Meganisoptera, such as Meganeura and Meganeuropsis.
Incurvarites alienella
Incurvarites is an extinct genus of moths in the family Incurvariidae. It was described by Rebel in 1934, and contains the species Incurvarites alienella. The fossil was found in Baltic amber and is dated to Lutetian, Middle Eocene.
Myanmymar
Myanmymar is an extinct genus of fairyfly preserved in Burmese amber from Myanmar. It has only one species, Myanmymar aresconoides. It is dated to the earliest part of the Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, around 99 million years old. As of 2011, it is the oldest known fossil mymarid.
Parahygrobiidae
Parahygrobia natans is an extinct species of adephagan beetle. It is the only member of the genus Parahygrobia and family Parahygrobiidae. It is known only from larvae from the Late Jurassic of Russia. Cladistic analysis has placed it as the sister group to extant Hygrobiidae.
Rhyniognatha
Rhyniognatha is an extinct genus of arthropod of disputed placement. It has been considered in some analyses as the oldest insect known, as well as possibly being a flying insect. Rhyniognatha is known from a partial head with preserved mouthparts from the Early Devonian aged Rhynie chert around 400 million years ago, when Earth’s first terrestrial ecosystems were being formed. The type, and only species is R. hirsti, which was named and described in 1928. Other analyses have interpreted the specimen as a myriapod.
Adelopsyche
Adelopsyche is an extinct genus of moths in the family Psychidae. The single species, Adelopsyche frustans, was found in the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado, United States. The fossil is dated to the Late Eocene.
Tarwinia
Tarwinia is an extinct genus of stem-group flea known from a single species, T. australis, from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian) Koonwarra Fossil Bed of Victoria, Australia, it is the only member of the family Tarwiniidae, and the only stem-group flea known from the Southern Hemisphere.
Prodryas
Prodryas persephone is an extinct species of brush-footed butterfly, known from a single specimen from the Chadronian-aged Florissant Shale Lagerstätte of Late Eocene Colorado. P. persephone is the first fossil butterfly to be found in North America, and is exquisitely well preserved. Its closest extant relatives are the mapwings and African admirals of the genera Hypanartia and Antanartia, respectively.
Sphingidites weidneri
Sphingidites is an extinct and monotypic moth genus in the family Sphingidae. Its only species is Sphingidites weidneri. It is a compression fossil of a prepupal larva. Both the genus and species were first described by Kurt Kernbach in 1967. The fossil was found at Willershausen clay pit in Germany and it was dated to the Pliocene.
Procoelambus
Procoelambus macrocephalus is an extinct species of beetle in the family Dytiscidae, the only species in the genus Procoelambus.
Calicovatellus
Calicovatellus is an extinct genus of dytiscid beetle in the subfamily Hydroporinae. , only one species is recognized, Calicovatellus petrodytes. It was found in the Barstow Formation in southern California and dates to the Miocene.
Oiophassus nycterus
Oiophassus is an extinct genus of moth in the family Hepialidae. It contains only one species, Oiophassus nycterus, which was described from Shanwang Bed sw2 in the Linchu district, Shandong province in China, which is part of an Astaracian lacustrine sandstone/mudstone in the Shanwang Formation.
Epiborkhausenites obscurotrimaculatus
Epiborkhausenites is an extinct genus of moth in the concealer moth family Oecophoridae and containing a single species Epiborkhausenites obscurotrimaculatus. The species is known only from Middle Eocene, Bartonian stage, Baltic amber deposits near the town of Palanga in Lithuania.
Afromaimetsha
Afromaimetsha robusta is an extinct species of wasp which existed in Botswana during the late Cretaceous period, and the only species in the genus Afromaimetsha.
Glendotricha olgae
Glendotricha is an extinct genus in the superfamily Pyraloidea. It was described by Kusnezov in 1941, and contains the species G. olgae. It is known from Baltic amber.
Praemendesia
Praemendesia is an extinct genus of moths in the family Elachistidae. It was described by Kozlov in 1987. It contains the species P. minima, which was described from Baltic amber in Russia. It is dated to the Eocene.
Magnocoleidae
Magnocoleus is an extinct genus of beetles from the Early Cretaceous of China, between 130.0 and 125.45 Mya. The genus contains a single species, Magnocoleus huangjiapuensis, and is the only member of the family Magnocoleidae in the suborder Archostemata. Magnocoleus was first described by Chinese palaeoentomologist Hong Youchong in 1998, based on fossils of isolated elytra from the Qingshila Formation in Huangjiapu, near the Nantianmen village of Zhangjiakou in Hebei. Recent phylogenetic analyses have suggested that Magnocoleus is closely related to or placed within either Cupedidae or O
Mirimordella
Mirimordella gracilicruralis is a fossil species of beetles in the family Mordellidae, the only species in the genus Mirimordella.
Prohepialus incertus
Prohepialus is an extinct genus of insect of uncertain phylogenetic placement. It was originally identified as a moth in the family Hepialidae; however, Simonsen, Wagner & Heikkilä (2019) considered it more likely to be a symphytan wasp. It contains only one species, Prohepialus incertus, which was described from a Thanetian crater lake diatomite (Paleocene) in Menat (Puy-de-Dôme), France. A second specimen is known from the Bembridge Marls (Eocene) in the United Kingdom.
Juracimbrophlebia
Juracimbrophlebia is an extinct genus of hangingflies that lived during the Middle Jurassic Period about 165 million years ago, containing only its type species, Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia; it was discovered in deposits from Daohugou in northeastern China’s Inner Mongolia.
Microperittia probosciphera
Microperittia is an extinct genus of moths in the family Elachistidae. It was described by Kozlov in 1987. It contains the species M. proboscifera, which was described from Baltic amber, more specifically Priabonian terrestrial amber in the Russian Federation.
Pterolophosoma
Pterolophosoma is an extinct genus of beetle in the family Cerambycidae, containing a single known species, Pterolophosoma otiliae. It was described by Vitali in 2006 who found it in a Dominican amber dating to Early Miocene.
Nesagapostemon moronei
Nesagapostemon is an extinct monotypic genus of sweat bee in the Halictidae subfamily Halictinae. At present, it contains the single species Nesagapostemon moronei.
Polyvena horatius
Polyvena is an extinct genus of moths belonging to the family Tortricidae. It contains only one species (Polyvena horatius) which was described from Dominican amber.
Eogeometer
Eogeometer is a prehistoric genus of Ennomine geometer moths in the tribe Boarmiini. The type and only species is Eogeometer vadens, the specimen of which measured about , and was estimated to be 44 million years old, dating back to Eocene epoch. Both the genus and species were described by Thilo C. Fischer, Artur Michalski and Axel Hausmann in 2019 as the first geometrid caterpillar in Baltic amber.
Protohepialus comstocki
Protohepialus is an extinct genus of moth in the family Hepialidae. It contains only one species, Protohepialus comstocki, which was described from a Tortonian marine shale (Upper Miocene) in the Puente Formation of California.
Aphodiites
Aphodiites is a genus of fossil beetles from the Lias (Lower Jurassic) of Schambelen (Aargau, Switzerland), and the oldest fossil in the superfamily Scarabaeoidea. Its affinities are not apparent; it was initially placed in the Aphodiinae (Scarabaeidae), but its diagnostic characters are shared by beetles such as Glaresis (Glaresidae).
Gallerites keleri
Gallerites is an extinct genus of snout moths. It was described by Kernbach in 1967, and contains the species Gallerites keleri which is known from the Pliocene. The species was discovered in Willershausen in Germany.
Blapsium
Blapsium is an extinct genus of beetles from the Middle Jurassic of England. The only described species is B. egertoni, which was first described by John O. Westwood in 1854. The species is known from a single specimen found by the Earl of Enniskillen in the Stonesfield Slate, now known as part of the Taynton Limestone Formation, which Sir Philip Egerton then passed to Westwood for description. The specimen is deposited in the Natural History Museum, London. It is incompletely preserved, lacking a head, pronotum and legs. It has a broad, convex body. It has a very short metathorax, which sugge
Eophyllium
Eophyllium is an extinct monotypic genus of the Phasmatodea, a type of insect ancestral to the modern Phylliidae. These insects mimic the shape of leaves for camouflage, with a single species, Eophyllium messelensis.
Archaeolepis
Archaeolepis mane is amongst the earliest undisputed lepidopteran fossils. It dates from the Lower Jurassic (ca ). It was found in the Charmouth Mudstone Formation, Dorset, United Kingdom.
Eriocranites hercynicus
Eriocranites is an extinct genus of moth in the family Elachistidae. It contains only one species, Eriocranites hercynicus, which was described from Willershausen in Germany. It is dated to the Pliocene.