Mesokristensenia

Mesokristensenia is an extinct genus of moth in the family Mesokristenseniidae. It existed in what is now China during the middle Jurassic period. It was named by Huang Diying, André Nel and Joël Minet in 2010, and the type species is Mesokristensenia latipenna.^[1]

Mesokristensenia Temporal range: Middle Jurassic, 165 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	†Mesokristenseniidae Huang, Nel & Minet, 2010
Genus:	†Mesokristensenia Huang, Nel & Minet, 2010
Species
†M. angustipenna Huang, Nel & Minet, 2010 †M. latipenna Huang, Nel & Minet, 2010 (type) †M. sinica Huang, Nel & Minet, 2010

Three species were included when the family and genus were first described. The species were recovered from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formations Daohugou beds in Inner Mongolia). Mesokristenseniidae was suggested to possibly represent a sister group to Micropterigidae. Mesokristensenia differs from all extant Lepidoptera, except Agathiphaga, in that the forewings retain four median veins, a character shared with the lepidopteran sister order Trichoptera.^[1]

References

1. Huang, Diying; Nel, André; Minet, Joël (2010). "A new family of moths from the Middle Jurassic (Insecta: Lepidoptera)". Acta Geologica Sinica. 84 (4): 874–885. doi:10.1111/j.1755-6724.2010.00233.x. S2CID 85206571.