Preheterobathmia, Mey, 2024

Mey, Wolfram, 2024, Preheterobathmia gen. nov. - a new non-glossatan taxon from Myanmar amber tentatively assigned to Heterobathmiidae (Insecta, Lepidoptera), Nota Lepidopterologica 47, pp. 1-10 : 1

Preheterobathmia gen. nov.

Gender.

feminine, type species: P. grimaldii sp. nov.

Etymology.

composite noun, with the prefix “pre”, before, and the genus name Heterobathmia , referring to the more ancient status of the new genus.

Diagnosis.

Head with ocelli and large labrum, epiphysis present, spur formula 0.4.4., wings densely covered by scales, forewing venation with SC apically forked, R1 simple, crossvein sc-r absent, pterostigma absent, radial branches from areole, M 3 branched, anal loop present; hindwing venation with median cell present; female genitalia without oviscapt, genital segment IX triangular, with genital orifice located in a depression on venter IX.

The new genus differs from Heterobathmia Kristensen & Nielsen, 1979 especially by the larger wing index, by two pairs of spurs of the mid-tibia versus only one pair in Heterobathmia , SC of forewing apically forked into SC1 and SC2 versus being un-forked apically and a lacking pterostigma. These characters, representing an ancestral state in Preheterobathmia , corroborate the notion of a more ancestral nature of the new genus in comparison with Heterobathmia (see Table 1 ).

Preheterobathmia gen. nov. is tentatively assigned to Heterobathmiidae mainly on the basis of the corresponding genitalia architecture of the female, which is unique for the family and very different from those of females in Micropterigidae , Agathiphagidae and basal Glossata as explained in detail by Kristensen (2003: 114).

Description.

see description of P. grimaldii sp. nov. below.