Osmylidia Cockerell, 1908

Makarkin, Vladimir N., Archibald, S. Bruce & Mathewes, Rolf W., 2021, New Protosmylinae (Neuroptera: Osmylidae) from the early Eocene of western North America, with taxonomic remarks, Zootaxa 4980 (1), pp. 142-156 : 144

Genus Osmylidia Cockerell, 1908

Osmylidia Cockerell, 1908: 342 .

Oligosmylus Krüger, 1913: 34 .

Protosmylus Krüger, 1913: 30 , syn. nov.

Type species. Osmylus requietus Scudder, 1890 , by monotypy.

Included species. Osmylidia donnae sp. nov., (mid Ypresian, Quilchena), O. glastrai sp. nov. (late Ypresian, Republic), O. taliae sp. nov. (late Ypresian, Green River Formation); Osmylidia sp. (mid Ypresian, Driftwood Canyon), O. requieta (late Priabonian, Florissant), O. picta (Hagen in Pictet-Baraban & Hagen, 1856) (Priabonian, Baltic amber), comb. nov.

Revised diagnosis. Separated from other genera of the subfamily by hind wing MA deeply forked [shallowly forked in other genera (unknown in Mesozoic Sogjuta , Jurosmylus and Protosmylina )], female procoxa with a large process (clearly seen only in O. picta ) [absent in other genera]. Forewing venation differs from that of other fossil genera by greater number of CuP branches (5–7) [≤ 4 in Sogjuta , Juraheterosmylus , Jurosmylus , Pseudosmylidia ; unknown in Protosmylina ].

Occurrence. Eocene (Ypresian to Priabonian) of North America and northern Europe.

Remarks. The forewing character states of extant genera vary greatly among their species, covering almost the entire range of those of the family, but the shallowly forked hind wing MA is consistent in these genera.

The proximal crossveins in the forewing radial space of Osmylidia requieta are arranged rather irregularly (see e.g., Carpenter 1943: Fig. 2 ). This is associated with at least eight and as many as ten crossveins between RA and RP while all other species of the genus possess at most six. We interpret this greater number of crossveins in these spaces and their arrangement as a species character.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Osmylidia donnae sp. nov., holotype hind wing Q-0317. A, photograph; B, drawing of venation (colouration omitted, refer to photograph). Posterior branch of MA in red. Scale bar = 5 mm.