Elephantomyia irinae

Elephantomyia irinae Temporal range: Middle Eocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
E. (E.) irinae body
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Clade:	Euarthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Family:	Limoniidae
Genus:	Elephantomyia
Species:	†E. irinae
Binomial name
Elephantomyia irinae Kania, 2015

Elephantomyia (Elephantomyia) irinae is an extinct species of crane fly in the family Limoniidae. The species is solely known from the Middle EoceneBaltic amber deposits in the Baltic Sea region of Europe. The species is one of six described from Baltic amber.

Elephantomyia (Elephantomyia) irinae is known from five male insects, the holotype specimen, collection number MP/3324, and four additional flies which are preserved as inclusions in transparent Baltic amber. As of 2015, the amber specimens were included in the collections of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Baltic amber is recovered from fossil bearing rocks in the Baltic Sea region of Europe. Estimates of the age date between 37 million years old, for the youngest sediments and 48 million years old. This age range straddles the middle Eocene, ranging from near the beginning of the Lutetian to the beginning of the Pribonian. E. irinae is one of six crane fly species in the genus Elephantomyia described from the Baltic amber, the others being E. baltica, E. brevipalpa, E. bozenae, E. longirostris, and E. pulchella. All six species are placed into the Elephantomyia subgenus Elephantomyia based on the lack of tibial spurs and by several aspects of the wing morphology.

The five specimens were first studied by paleoentomologist Iwona Kania, of the University of Rzeszów, who's 2015 type description for the species was published in the journal PLoS ONE. The specific epithet irinae was coined to honor the biologist Irina D. Sukatsheva.