Phyloblattidae and Compsoblattidae (Insecta, Blattodea) from the late Carboniferous Souss basin, Morocco

Abstract

Abstract The Late Pennsylvanian (Kasimovian, early Stephanian) sub- to perimontaneous Souss basin, situated in the present-day southwestern High Atlas mountains of Morocco, contains the hitherto only known late Paleozoic entomofauna from North Africa, which is simultaneously also the southernmost Euramerican entomofauna. The present study provides descriptions, identifications, and revisions of several species belonging to the genera Phyloblatta and Anthracoblattina (family Phyloblattidae) and of the genus Compsoblatta (family Compsoblattidae). A relatively large number of well-preserved Phyloblatta forewings, compared with congeneric species from several insect localities in Europe and North America, permits insights into the individual, intraspecific, and interspecific variability of the venation pattern as indispensable base for the description of the new specimens and the revision of several older species. The Souss insect beds cover a wide range of potential habitats. They are situated in different paleogeographical positions within the Souss basin and scattered across a 900 m thick succession of sediments. The single insect beds represent different sedimentary and biotic subenvironments from swamps and mires to shallow and deep lakes within a fluvial-dominated megaenvironment.