Cyllonium

Cyllonium Temporal range: Berriasian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Cyllonium boidusvalianum
Cyllonium hewitsonianum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Genus:	†Cyllonium Westwood, 1854
Species
See text.

Cyllonium are a genus of extinct insects. It contains two species.^[1]

Discovery

Both species of Cyllonium were first described by the English entomologist John Obadiah Westwood. The fossils were recovered from the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian age) of the Lower Purbeck formation, Durdlestone Bay, England.^[2]

Taxonomy

Very little is known of the two fossils as they were published without description. Illustrations, however, were provided, but even these show that the fossils were fragmentary. They were originally identified to be butterflies, but this is now generally not accepted.^[3]

They have been tentatively identified as possible palaeontinids (extinct giant cicadas) in 1961.^[4]

Species

The two species assigned to the genus are the following:^[2]

• †Cyllonium boidusvalianum Westwood, 1854
• †Cyllonium hewitsonianum Westwood, 1854

See also

• Cicadomorpha
• Prehistoric insects
• Prehistoric Lepidoptera

References

1. John Phillips (1855). Manual of geology: practical and theoretical. R. Griffin and company. p. 329.
2. J. O. Westwood (1854). "Contributions to Fossil Entomology". The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London (Geological Society of London) 10. Fossil Insects from the Lower Purbecks, Durdlestone Bay, Dorset, pp. 395–396. doi:10.1144/gsl.jgs.1854.010.01-02.43. Retrieved July 13, 2011.
3. "Cyllonium Westwood, 1854". Natural History Museum. Retrieved July 13, 2011.
4. Bo Wang, Haichun Zhang, & Edmund A. Jarzembowski (2008). "A new genus and species of Palaeontinidae (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadomorpha) from the Lower Cretaceous of southern England" (PDF). Zootaxa (Magnolia Press) (1751): 65–68. ISSN 1175-5326. Retrieved July 13, 2011.