Alavaraphidia

Alavaraphidia Temporal range: Albian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Raphidioptera
Family:	†Mesoraphidiidae
Genus:	†Alavaraphidia
Species:	†A. imperterrita
Binomial name
Alavaraphidia imperterrita Pérez-de la Fuente, et al, 2012

Alavaraphidia is an extinct genus of snakefly in the family Mesoraphidiidae. The genus is solely known from an Early Cretaceous, Albian age, fossil amber found in Spain. Currently, the genus comprises a single species, Alavaraphidia imperterrita.

Alavaraphidia imperterrita is known only from one fossil, the holotype, specimen number MCNA 13608. The specimen is composed of a mostly complete adult insect with the majority of the wing missing. The body is positioned so a ventral view is shown and the dorsal sides are obscured. Despite the positioning and lack of preserved wings, enough details are present to show the specimen was not from a previously described genus. The specimen is included in a small piece of amber which lacks other major inclusions. The fossil was recovered from outcrops of the Escucha Formation in Moraza, part of the Province of Burgos in Northern Spain.Alavaraphidia was first studied by a group of paleoentomologists led by Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente of the University of Barcelona and including Enrique Peñalver, Xavier Delclòs, and Michael S. Engel. Their 2012 type description of the new genus and species was published in the electronic journal ZooKeys. The genus name Alavaraphidia was coined by the researchers as a combination of the snakefly genus Raphidia and "Álava" which is in honor of the Álava amber deposits that preserved the specimen. The specific epithet imperterrita is from the Latin imperterritus meaning "fearless". The authors chose this as a reference to the unalterable nature of organisms trapped in amber.Alavaraphidia imperterrita is one of six described snakefly species found in the Albian deposits of Cantabria.