Study On The Jurassic Fossil Raphidioptera And Neuroptera From Northeast China

Eastern Inner Mongolia and Western Liaoning are located in the northeast part of China. It has preserved comprehensive deposits of long geological history, yielding abundant fossils. This area is one of the most typical areas in the world, with well-developed continental Mesozoic sediments. Most notable fossils from this area are from the terrestrial Jurassic especially in Jiulongshang Formation of Middle Jurassic and Yixian Formation of Late Jurassic, where abundant insect fossils such as snakeflies and lacewings and other insects have been discovered, providing important evidence for the study of the origin and early evolution of insects.The Raphidioptera and Neuroptera are one of the most archaic groups of endopterygote Neoptera.Many of them have been presumed to be predators. As predators, they are generally beneficial for biocontrol projects. Both Raphidioptera and Neuroptera are small orders, with a little more than 5000 described species all over the world.This dissertation consists of following five parts.In Part one, Jurassic stratigraphic division in Eastern Inner Mongolia and Western Liaoning has been done. Three geological sections which fossil Raphidioptera and Neuroptera collected from are introduced.In Part two, a brief researching history on Raphidioptera and Neuroptera are given. The biology, anatomy of adult, evolutionary history of fossil Raphidioptera and Neuroptera are reviewed.In Part three, the phylogeny of Raphidioptera is analyzed. The cladistic method was first used to study familial phylogeny of fossil and living snake-flies.In Part four, based on abundant insect fossils collected from the Late Jurassic Yixian Formation 4 insect communities were recognized.The richness, diversity, dominance within these 4 communities were analyzed. Insect community and their environmental setting are reconstructed. A hypothetical structure of the Late Jurassic Yixian Formation lake ecosystem is given. They represent a humid and warm climatecondition. Results suggested that there might be a near-shore and shallow water lacustrine environment in fossil locality. The first non-marine ecostratigraphic research was made in dividing Late Mesozoic strata of Fengning, Hebei province. A description of ecostratigraphic section and one columnar section are given. Ecostratigraphic subdivision revealed a general pattern of basin evolution, which re-appears in many other sections of Northeast China. According to the paleobiogeographic analysis, the region underwent four evolutionary episodes during Late Mesozoic.In Part five, a comprehensive taxonomic work on Jurassic Raphidioptera and Neuroptera is presented.7 new genera and 10 new species within Raphidioptera and 42 new genera and 56 new species within 13 neuropteran families are reported and illustrated by 92 line drawings and 100 photos from this area.2 new families and 1 new subfamilies are newly proposed. Of the 16 families studied, 5 families are first recorded from China.6 families were oldest in geological history in the world. The results demonstrated that the East Asian, especially Northeast China, is one of the original places of snake-flies and lacewings.