A SPILOBLATTINID (HOLOPANDICTYOPTERA) HIND WING FROM THE CARBONIFEROUS OF SAN GIORGIO BASIN (SW SARDINIA): THE OLDEST FOSSIL INSECT FROM ITALY

In this contribution, we described and figured a nearly complete and exquisitely preserved fossil hind wing of a roachoid insect (Holopandictyoptera) from the late Moscovian (Pennsylvanian, Carboniferous) of southwestern Sardinia. The specimen is characterised by distinctive darkened seams along the main veins and a fenestrate-type colour pattern, and can be tentatively attributed to the family Spiloblattinidae Handlirsch, 1906, a family known between the Moscovian and the Kungurian (315.2 ± 0.2 to 274.4 ± 0.4 Ma) from China, Europe, North America, North Africa, and Southern Africa. At this stage an assignment at a generic level is not possible, due to the fragmentary nature of the fossil and the limited knowledge of hind wings within this group. The fossil was recovered from the carbon-rich lacustrine deposits of the San Giorgio Basin, a well-known continental late Carboniferous sequence rich in ichnofossils and plant remains. This discovery represents, to date, the oldest fossil insect ever documented in Italy and the first formal record of an insect from Sardinia, also constituting the earliest occurrence of a spiloblattinid in the Italian Peninsula. Comparisons with other spiloblattinid and compsoblattid hind wings, including those from the Gzhelian and Permian of Europe and North Africa, support its assignment based on venation architecture, width of interveinal areas, and absence of reticulated cross venation. Our results demonstrate the considerable promise of integrative palaeontological research in Sardinia’s Carboniferous strata and underline the need for sustained fieldwork and rigorous taxonomic study of the region’s still poorly documented insect assemblages.