Eocorona
Encyclopedia
Eocorona is an extinct genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of amphiesmenopteran
Amphiesmenoptera
Amphiesmenoptera is an insect superorder, established by Willi Hennig in his revision of insect taxonomy for two sister orders: Lepidoptera and Trichoptera ....

 from the Middle Triassic
Middle Triassic
In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided. It spans the time between 245 ± 1.5 Ma and 228 ± 2 Ma...

 of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It contains only one species, Eocorona iani, and is the type genus
Type genus
In biological classification, a type genus is a representative genus, as with regard to a biological family. The term and concept is used much more often and much more formally in zoology than it is in botany, and the definition is dependent on the nomenclatural Code that applies:* In zoological...

 of the family Eocoronidae.

Discovery

Eocorona iani was first described by the Australian
Australian people
Australian people, or simply Australians, are the citizens of Australia. Australia is a multi-ethnic nation, and therefore the term "Australian" is not a racial identifier. Aside from the Indigenous Australian population, nearly all Australians or their ancestors immigrated within the past 230 years...

 anthropologist and entomologist Norman Tindale
Norman Tindale
Norman Barnett Tindale was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist and entomologist. Born in Perth, his family moved to Tokyo from 1907 to 1915, where his father worked as an accountant at the Salvation Army mission in Japan. Soon after returning to Australia, Tindale got a job at the South...

 in 1980. The fossil was composed of a nearly complete forewing and a hindwing tentatively interpreted as belonging to the same species. It was recovered from Mount Crosby, Queensland
Mount Crosby, Queensland
Mount Crosby is a mountain and outer suburb of Brisbane, Australia located south-west of the Brisbane CBD.-Geography:The Brisbane River, Mount Crosby and the adjoining State Forest are the dominant natural features of the area.-History:...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It dates from the Carnian age (228.0 – 216.5 million years ago) of the Middle Triassic
Middle Triassic
In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided. It spans the time between 245 ± 1.5 Ma and 228 ± 2 Ma...

.

Taxonomy

Eocorona iani is the only species in the genus Eocorona and the family Eocoronidae. Tindale.originally described Eocorona iani as a butterfly (order Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

). This has been challenged by a number of other authors.

Most recently, Minet et al. (2010) considered Eocorona a 'true' member of the superorder Amphiesmenoptera
Amphiesmenoptera
Amphiesmenoptera is an insect superorder, established by Willi Hennig in his revision of insect taxonomy for two sister orders: Lepidoptera and Trichoptera ....

, neither lepidopteran (butterflies and moths) nor trichopteran (caddisflies).
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