Sikhotealinia Explained

Sikhotealinia is a genus of beetle containing a single species, Sikhotealinia zhiltzovae, which is the only living representative of the family Jurodidae. It was discovered in the Sikhote-Alin mountains in Russian Manchuria. This "living fossil" is unique in having three ocelli on its forehead, a condition otherwise unknown in the entire order Coleoptera, whether extinct or living - though it is common in other orders, and generally considered a groundplan character for neopteran insects. Sikhotealinia and its extinct relative Jurodes are considered as a sister group to all other archostematan beetles.^[1]

Further reading

• Leschen . R.A.B. . Beutel . R.G. . 2004 . Ocellar atavism in Coleoptera: plesiomorphy or apomorphy? . Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research . 42 . 1 . 63–69 . 10.1046/j.0947-5745.2003.00241.x . 56327166 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190302193929/http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bb3a/09ad07caf2763a742995734aa14d5b58827a.pdf . dead . 2019-03-02 .

External links

• Illustration
• Most mysterious representative of beetles - Sikhotealinia zhiltzovae Lafer, 1996 Photos

Notes and References

1. Yan. Evgeny V.. Wang. Bo. Ponomarenko. Alexander G.. Zhang. Haichun. 2014. The most mysterious beetles: Jurassic Jurodidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) from China. Gondwana Research. en. 25. 1. 214–225. 10.1016/j.gr.2013.04.002.