2 Materials and Methods.
The specimen described in this study was excavated at Orapa Diamond Mine (ODM) (Fig. 1), located in the north-east of Botswana, approximately 240 km due west of Francistown (McKay 1991). A double eruption of diamondiferous kimberlites from North and South pipe resulted in a deposition of fossiliferous sediments in a crater lake. These were subsequently uncovered by mining operations, and collected from 18 sites between 1983 and 1988 (McKay 1990). Based on the decay of238U in zircons in the kimberlite, the sediments are aged between 81.7 and 98.5 Ma, with a midpoint of 90.1 Ma (Haggerty et al. 1983), and 93.1 Ma (Davis 1977), respectively. Thus, the deposits are considered as Upper Cretaceous (Turonian, but possibly Cenomanian or Coniacian). Orapa is the only major insect deposit from the Cretaceous in Africa (Grimaldi and Engel 2005). The palaeofauna of the Orapa deposit has been reviewed (McKay and Rayner 1986; Rayner and McKay 1986; Rayner 1987; Rayner and Waters 1989, 1990; Waters 1989, 1990; McKay 1990, 1991; Brothers 1992; Rayner 1993; Rayner et al. 1991, 1994, 1997; Kuschel et al. 1994; Brothers and Rasnitsyn 2003, 2008; Dlussky et al. 2004; Rasnitsyn and Brothers 2007, 2009; Kopylov et al. 2010; Woolley 2016; Mnguni 2022; and Mnguni et al. 2022).
The specimen described here is a well-preserved compression fossil. The holotype is housed in the Herbarium of the Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI), at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Observation and photography were taken using a combination of an Olympus SZX7 binocular microscope (with Olympus U-TV0.36XC camera) and an Olympus DSX 110 digital microscope. Multiple images were stacked and measured using an Olympus Stream 2.4. All the images were prepared using Adobe Photoshop version 5.6.5.58 (Adobe Creative Cloud, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa). The specimen was examined under cross polars to clarify the outlines, and non-polarized light was used at various angles to show relief. Polarizing filters were attached to the swan necked lights (the objective lens of the microscope), and were rotated to polarize the light and remove reflection. A single specimen of an adult fossil with carbonaceous material preserving both dorsal and ventral structures is described. The antennae, eyes, legs, elytra, and mouthparts are preserved as part (120 x 90 x 38 mm) and counterpart (73 x 62 x 30 mm) in large pieces of brown lacustrine mudstones. The scale in all the photographs is 1 mm.