This is Mazon Monday post #305.  What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at  email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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Herdina mirificus is an extinct species of short-winged insect, currently classified in the order Protorthoptera. Protorthoptera is an extinct lineage of insects that lived during the middle to late Pennsylvanian Period some 318 to 299 million years ago. The order is a bit of a waste basket, containing a paraphyletic assemblage of basal neoptera.

The namesake for Herdina mirificus is Jerry Herdina, a prolific Mazon Creek collector who donated his collection to the Field Museum in 1974 (see Mazon Monday #226). Jerry Herdina (1905-1974) was a retired construction engineer with a love for Mazon Creek fossils.  Jerry was a long time member of the Field Museum.  He amassed his collection between 1928 and 1973.

Herdina mirificus was described by Frank Carpenter and Eugene Richardson, Jr. in the 1971 paper “Additional Insects in Pennsylvanian Concretions From Illinois” in the journal Psyche. The passage below is from the paper.

The ironstone nodules from the Francis Creek Shale (Middle Pennsylvanian) of Illinois continue to yield many interesting and significant insects. The specimens described in this paper were obtained in former mine pits in Grundy, Will and Kankakee Counties, and have been made available to us by the following collectors, who have been unusually successful in finding insects: Mr. Jerry Herdina, Berwyn, Illinois; Mr. Joseph Makowski, Chicago; Helen and Ted Piecko, Chicago; Mr. Paul Tidd, Mendota, Illinois; and Mr. and Mrs. Francis Wolff, Park Forest, Illinois. We are most grateful to them for their cooperation in loaning their specimens to us for study and their patience in waiting for the results. Special thanks are extended to Mr. Jerry Herdina and to Helen and Ted Piecko for allowing us to photograph and to make a thorough examination of all the insects in their collections. Subsequent papers in this series will deal with additional specimens which they and other local collectors have found.

Frank Carpenter wrote chapter 14A “Insecta” of the “Richardson’s Guide to the Fossil Fauna of Mazon Creek“. Carpenter was an American entomologist and paleontologist. He was curator of fossil insects at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology for 60 years. He wrote a summary description of Protorthoptera in chapter 14A.

Infraclass Neoptera
Order Protorthoptera

These were neopterous insects with mandibulate mouthparts. They were obviously related to the members of the existing order Orthoptera but lacked the jumping hind legs characteristic of that order. In some species both fore and hind wings were membranous, but in many species the forewings were thickened or coriaceous, and the hind wings had an enlarged anal area. The wing venation is usually well preserved in the fossils, and it obviously was very diversified throughout the order. The body structure, however, is not so well known because the folding of the wings over the thorax and abdomen tends to conceal those parts in the fossils. Those species that do have the body preserved show much diversity of structure.
This order is known only from the Upper Carboniferous and Permian, but it was the largest of all the extinct orders of insects, in terms of numbers of species and genera. Over 50 families have been described; these include 125 genera. Another 85 genera have been named, but they have not been assigned to families because of poor preservation. Twelve families are known from Mazon Creek, represented by 25 genera. An equal number of genera are in the incertae sedis category.

The family Geraridae is one of the best known of the Protorthoptera in Mazon Creek. The prothorax was very long and exceptionally broad posteriorly, with long, stout spines. The subcostal vein, SC, ended on the front margin of the wing. Vein M was the most extensive vein in the forewings, but RS was the largest vein in the hind wing. Gerarus danielsi Handlirsch is probably the most frequently collected insect in the Mazon Creek nodules (Figures 14A.19, 14A.20). Nacekomia rossae Richardson (1956) was a similar species but had the front margin of the forewing distinctly concave basa11y Figures 14A.21, 14A.22).

The family Spanioderidae includes several species from Mazon Creek. They resemble the Geraridae in some respects, but vein SC of the forewing always ends on the R vein. Protecticus ambulans (Handlirsch, 1906) is the type of the family and one of the best known species (Figure 14A. 23).

Herdina mirificus is mentioned on page 192.

Herdina mirificus Carpenter and Richardson (1971), of the family Herdinidae, is the most unusual of the Protorthoptera found at Mazon Creek (Figures 14A.27, 14A.28). Both fore and hind wings were very short, not sufficient for flight. The veins, however, were very strong and formed a series of cells over the wings. Several specimens of this insect have been found at Pit 11. At first the specimens were thought to be nymphal forms, but since the wings were heavily sclerotized and the veins strongly formed, it is more likely that this insect was subhapterous, as are many species in the order Orthoptera.

Specimens

PE 24853, holotype. Collected by Jerry Herdina in Pit 11