Puripolystoechotes pumilus, Yang & Shi & Pang & Ren, 2019

Yang, Qiang, Shi, Chaofan, Pang, Hong & Ren, Dong, 2019, A new genus of giant lacewing (Insecta, Neuroptera, Ithonidae) from the Middle Jurassic of China, Zootaxa 4613 (2), pp. 375-378 : 376-377

Puripolystoechotes pumilus gen. et sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:FBDA4AB9-37B1-4C3C-8B21-2963F8C95281

Fig. 1

Holotype. CNU-NEU-NN2013010 , body partly preserved and a well preserved hind wing.

Etymology. The specific epithet is from the Latin pumilus (means small), in reference to its the small size.

Locality and horizon. Daohugou Village, Shantou Township, Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia, China; Middle Jurassic (Bathonian, Jiulongshan Formation).

Description.

Body robust, head and body with numerous scattered, fine setae. Compound eyes large. Antenna: only scape preserved. Pronotum wider than long; pro-, meso- and metanotum with scattered, fine, long setae. Legs poorly preserved, only forefemur preserved, with numerous short setae intermixed with long setae. Abdomen with three or four basal segments preserved.

Hind wing subtriangular, length 16.5 mm, width 7.7 mm, with sparsely scattered setae on veins and margin; membrane without fuscous areas; trichosors distinct; humeral vein simple, not recurrent; frenulum present; costal space moderately narrow proximally, then gradually dilated distally toward apex after the fusion of ScP and RA; subcostal veinlets simple and sparsely distributed before the mid wing, then shallowly or deeply forked and densely distributed towards the apex, pterostigma not present. ScP and RA fused distally; ScP+RA long, entering margin just before wing apex; veinlets of ScP+RA deeply forked; subcostal space very narrow, with one single sc-r crossvein near wing base; RA space wider than subcostal space, with three crossveins, two proximal and one distal to the fusion of ScP and RA. RP originated near wing base, with eleven branches, each dichotomously forked distally. M likely fused basally with R; forked slightly distal to origin of RP1. MA, MP pectinately forked distally, MA with two, MP with three branches; two ma-mp crossveins, one near wing base, other as part of outer gradate series of crossveins. Basal 1r-m between stem R and M long and sigmoid. Cu divided into CuA and CuP near wing base; CuA pectinately forked, with four branches; CuP dichotomously forked distally; one cua-cup detected between CuA and CuP. AA1 with four pectinate branches; one crossvein present between CuP and AA1; AA2 with three pectinate branches; one aa1-aa2 detected; AA3 biforked distally. Two gradate series of crossveins; in inner series about six crossveins detected, outer series with 12 detected crossveins. Membrane without color pattern.

Remarks. Puripolystoechotes pumilus gen. et sp. nov. is considered to belong to Ithonidae based on a long and wide antehumeral space, and the apical area between C and ScP+RA expanded ( Winterton & Makarkin 2010). The new genus shows similarity with the polystoechotid genus-group by the distal fusion of ScP and RA, ending close to the wing apex, and two rows of gradate series crossveins. The genus also possesses characters that are only shared with fossil ithonids, such as a simple humeral vein (also found in Guithone ), and a distal fusion of ScP and RA (only found in fossil polystoechotid genus-group) (Zheng et al. 2016a).

This genus is most similar to the extant genus Polystoechotes Burmeister, 1839 and the Jurassic genus Jurapolystoechotes Ren, Engel et Lü, 2002 , but it can easily be distinguished from these by the following characters: (1) the subcostal veinlets are simple and sparsely distributed before the mid wing (subcostal veinlets forked in Jurapolystoechotes ); (2) only three ra-rp crossveins, one located apically near the wing margin (more ra-rp crossveins present in Jurapolystoechotes and Polystoechotes ); (3) M forked slightly distal to the origin of RP1 (M forked a little proximal to origin of RP 1 in Jurapolystoechotes and Polystoechotes ); (4) wing membrane without color pattern (prominent maculae present along margins in Jurapolystoechotes ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Puripolystoechotes pumilus gen. et sp. nov., holotype CNU-NEU-NN NN2013010PC. A, B, photograph of the holotype (part and counterpart), wetted with ethanol; C, line drawing of the holotype; D, line drawing of the hind wing with venational terminology. Scale bars = 10 mm.