Jarmila Kukalova-Peck

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Dr. Jarmila Kukalová-Peck, is a Czech paleoentomologist, well-known for her controversial theories on insect evolution, particularly for her theory on the origin of insect wings, which proposes that these structures are derived from an epicoxal exite of the insect’s leg. This theory is known as the epicoxal theory. Among Dr. Kukalová-Peck's other contributions are: a new system of homologization of insect wing veins, a hypothetical reconstruction of the ancestral insect wing and wing articulation, and a new proposal regarding the original structure of arthropod appendages.

Kukalová-Peck began her career working with extinct paleopterous insects, especially the Paleozoic groups Diaphanopteroidea, Paleodictyoptera, Megasecoptera and Archodonata, which she termss the Palaeodictyopteroid Assemblage. Working with these groups, particularly with fossils of Homoiopteridae (Palaeodictyoptera), she outlined her theory on the epicoxal origin of the wing, which contradicted the old and widely accepted paranotal theory of wing origin (Crampton, 1919). Her theory, which is partly supported by recent discoveries in the fields of developmental genetics and molecular phylogenetics, is still highly disputed, and many specialists especially reject her epicoxal theory and her reconstruction of the ancestral wing articulation, while most specialists indeed accept her new homologization of the insect wing venation.

Also due to her work with fossils is the elaboration of a system of homologization for insect wing veins, with which she is mainly occupied today and which is the simplest and most general of all the systems that have been proposed. Kukalová’s system meanwhile has superseded Comstock and Needham’s system (1898) in the estimation of entomologists.

Dr. Jarmila Kukalová-Peck is currently an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.