Peromelissa phalacra (Haeckel 1887) Petrushevskaya, 1971

Plate 38, Figs. 3A – 6.

Psilomelissa phalacra n. sp., Haeckel, 1887, p. 1208 –1209 [not figured].

Peromelissa phalacra n. sp., Haeckel, 1887, pl. 57, fig. 11.

Psilomelissa longispina n. sp., Cleve, 1900, pl. 4, fig. 4.

Psilomelissa phalacra Haeckel, Popofsky, 1908, pl. 34, fig. 4.

Psilomelissa phalacra Haeckel, Popofsky, 1913, text-fig. 48.

Lithomelissa monoceras n. sp., Popofsky, 1913, pl. 32, fig. 7, text-fig. 43.

Lithomelissa thoracites Haeckel, Benson, 1966, pl. 24, fig. 13 (non figs. 11–12).

Peromelissa phalacra Haeckel, Petrushevskaya, 1971, pl. 46, fig. 14; pl. 59, figs. 1–2; pl. 72, figs. 14–17.

Peromelissa phalacra (Haeckel) Petrushevskaya, Renz, 1974, pl. 18, fig. 7.

Lithomelissa monoceras Popofsky, Tan and Tchang, 1976, text-fig. 49.

Peromelissa phalacra Haeckel, Boltovskoy and Riedel, 1980, pl. 5, fig. 3.

Peromelissa phalacra Haeckel, Takahashi and Honjo, 1981, pl. 7, figs. 4–5 (non fig. 3).

Peromelissa phalacra Haeckel, Nishimura and Yamauchi, 1984, pl. 32, fig. 12 (non fig. 1).

non Peromelissa phalacra Haeckel, Boltovskoy and Jankilevich, 1985, pl. 4, fig. 8.

Peromelissa phalacra Haeckel, Boltovskoy and Riedel, 1987, pl. 4, fig. 14.

Peromelissa phalacra Haeckel, Fujioka, 1990, pl. 45, fig. 9.

Peromelissa phalacra Haeckel, Takahashi, 1991, pl. 25, figs. 11–15.

Peromelissa thoracites forma phalacra, Van de Paverd, 1995, pl. 66, figs. 11–14.

Lithomelissa monoceras Popofsky, Tan and Su, 2003, text-fig. 106.

Peromelissa phalacra Haeckel, Okazaki et al., 2005, fig. 12.16.

Peromelissa phalacra Haeckel, Itaki et al., 2010, fig. 6.19.

Peromelissa phalacra Haeckel, Trubovitz et al., 2020, supplementary data 7.

Remarks. Peromelissa phalacra was originally described by Haeckel(1887) as having a closed thorax, differentiating it from Psilomelissa phalacra Haeckel (1887) . However, Psilomelissa phalacra was not figured by Haeckel, and subsequent observations by Petrushevskaya (1971) and the present study suggest that the thorax can be on a gradient between open and closed, and thus probably attributable to intraspecific and/or ontogenetic variation. Following Petrushevskaya (1971), we consider Psilomelissa phalacra and Peromelissa phalacra to be the same species. Psilomelissa longispina (Cleve, 1900) and some mentions of Lithomelissa monoceras (Popofsky, 1913), including Popofsky’s original illustrations, are also listed in our synonymy, following Petrushevskaya (1971). Peromelissa phalacra Haeckel is differentiated from Peromelissa thoracites (Haeckel) Matsuzaki et al., 2015 in having a weaker apical spine, narrower thorax, and a slightly elongated cephalis with significantly smaller pores than the thorax, which becomes increasingly hyaline toward the top.

Range. Pliocene– Recent, EEP (Table 1).