Our insect of the week once again focuses on the ancient insects which once lived in what we now call Illinois. During their short lives (over 300 million years ago), our region was located in tropical climes. The specimen in these photographs in a fossil found in a concretion (iron carbonate). This specimen was identified by another paleo-entomologist. I recently obtained this and thought it would be worth sharing and discussing briefly. This nymph belongs to the extinct order Megasecoptera. The family is Mischopteridae. It has been tentatively identified as Mischoptera douglassi Carpenter & Richardson, 1969. This appears to be the most common nymph found at Pit 11 (near Braidwood, Illinois). I do not know when this specimen was collected. There are 22 known families and 35 genera in this extinct insect order. All had sucking mouth parts. During their heyday, this order is suspected of representing about 50% of the insect biomass at that time.

The specimen shown in these photographs is likely a young nymph of this species. IF you look closely, you can see wing buds from the thoracic segments. I provide a close up photo in the image below. If this individual had lived to adulthood, it likely would have held its wings like today’s dragonflies. By the end of the Permian, this order became extinct and is known today mostly from these concretion fossils. As you can see, the insect looks very different from what we encounter today in central Illinois. It is also very interesting to know that Illinois was part of a tropical environment when this insect lived.