Eigelege fossiler Zygopteren auf dikotylenblättern aus dem mittelmiozän von Salzhausen (Vogelsberg, Hessen, Deutschland)

22 specimens of dicotyledon leaves with egg-sets of fossil Zygoptera, originating from a locality NE of Frankfurt/Main, Germany and preserved in SMF, Frankfurt/Main are described, illustrated and discussed. In the past (1846, H.R. Goeppert, Die Gattungen der fossilen Pflanzen, Henry & Cohen, Bonn), these structures were misinterpreted as saprophytes, “ Hysterites opegraphoides”. The true nature of the sets is apparent from fossil and recent evidence; they are to be attributed to the “coenagrionid type” of oviposition, more particularly to the so-called “Zickzack- und Bogenmodus” mode sensu M. Hellmund & W. Hellmund, 1991 (Stung. Beitr. Naturk. [B] 177: 1-17). Herewith the phenomenon is recorded for the first time from the Middle Miocene and the Lower Neogene (age ca 15 mio yr), though this oviposition mode is practised since the Upper Cretaceous times (ca 90 mio yr ago) until present. In some Tertiary localities, e.g. Messel (Hesse) and Hammerunterwiesenthal (Saxony), egg-sets are the only evidence of the Zygoptera occurrence.