Bohemiatupus
Bohemiatupus is an extinct genus of griffinfly in the family Meganeuridae and which contains a single species Bohemiatupus elegans. The species is known only from the Late Carboniferous, Bolsovian stage, Kladno Formation near the village of Radnice in the Radnice Basin, Czech Republic.
History and classification
Bohemiatupus elegans is known only from one fossil, the holotype, specimen number "M00485" which is composed of an isolated fore-wing and hind-wing. The wings are preserved as a negative imprint fossil in a sedimentary tuff. The fossil specimen is from outcrops of the Kladno Formation exposed in the Ovčín opencast mine. Bohemiatupus elegans is the first described occurrence of large griffinflies found in the continental basins of the Bohemian Massif. The type specimen is currently preserved in the collections housed in the West Bohemian Museum, located in Plzeň, Czech Republic. Bohemiatupus was first studied by Jakub Prokop of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic and André Nel of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, France. Their 2008 type description of the genus and species was published in the journal Annales de la Société Entomologique de France. The generic name was coined by Prokop and Nel from a combination of the "Bohemia" in reference to the historical central European region and the meganeurid genus Tupus to which Bohemiatupus is related. The etymology of the specific epithet elegans is Latin and refers to the "magnificent state of preservation" displayed by the holotype.The ecosystem in which Bohemiatupus elegans lived is interpreted as a shallow lake that developed into a peat-mire due to sediment infill from volcanic ash during the Bolsovian. Bohemiatupus elegans shared this environment with the notably large insect species Bojophlebia prokopi and Carbotriplura kukalovae, which were described from the Kladno Formation earlier.