Halteriomantispa, Xingyue Liu, Xiumei Lu & Weiwei Zhang, 2016

Xingyue Liu, Xiumei Lu & Weiwei Zhang, 2016, Halteriomantispa grimaldii gen. et sp. nov.: A new genus and species of the family Dipteromantispidae (Insecta: Neuroptera) from the mid-Cretaceous amber of Myanmar, Zoological Systematics 41 (2), pp. 165-172 : 166-167

Halteriomantispa gen. nov. ( Figs 1–5 , 9–10 ) Type species: Halteriomantispa grimaldii sp. nov.

Diagnosis. Body small-sized (forewing length about 5 mm). Head suboval, with vertex slightly domed. Antennae filiform, with large scape and pedical, and with flagellum slightly flattened. Pronotum slightly longer and narrower than head. Mesonotum with a prominent scutellum. Forelegs raptorial; profemur without spines or denticles, but with only rows of upright setae along ventral margin. Forewing subtriangular, with a small dark dot on distal portion of subcostal space and an ovoid, much larger, dark marking medially; hind wing strongly reduced into a haltere-like structure. Forewing venation: Pterostigma, nygma, and trichosores absent. Costal space about 3/4× wing length, slightly dilated at subproximal portion, and strongly narrowed distad. Costal crossveins simple. ScA present as a short, straight veinlet. 1scp-ra crossvein absent, 2scp-ra crossvein present. Veinlets of RA with small marginal forks. RP +MA separating from RA near wing base. RP separating from RP +MA approximately at midpoint of wing, with five simples, closely spaced branches. MA with two simple branches. MP proximally strongly curved and fused with R, with three simple branches. Four crossveins among branches of RP and M allied into a short gradate series. 1m-cu crossvein present, nearly upright, slightly proximad forking of Cu. Cu deeply forked into long and simple CuA and CuP. A1 with free stem, forked nearly at its midpoint into two simple branches. Female gonocoxites 7 paired, digitiform; tergum 9 posterolaterally with a pair of ovoid valvate lobes (putative pseudohypocaudae); gonocoxite 9 subtrapezoid, anteriorly with a small subtriangular lobe (putative hypocauda), and posteriorly with a membranous crescent lobe.

Etymology. The generic epithet is a combination of ‘ Halteria ’ (in reference to the haltere-like hindwing of the new genus) and ‘ Mantispa ’ (typical genus name of the family Mantispidae ). The name is feminine.

Remarks. The new species greatly differs from Dipteromantispa from the Early Cretaceous of China by a number of forewing features, such as long costal space (Dipteromantispa: costal space short, about half of forewing length), RA richly branched distad (Dipteromantispa: RA simple), narrowly spaced branches of RP (Dipteromantispa: RP branches widely spaced), and MA bifurcated distad (Dipteromantispa: MA simple). In general, the new species appears to be closely related to Mantispidiptera from the Late Cretaceous amber of New Jersey by sharing the aforementioned forewing features. However, it can be distinguished from Mantispidiptera by the larger body size (Mantispidiptera: minute-sized, forewing length 2.6–3.1 mm), the slightly prolonged pronotum (Mantispidiptera: pronotum shorter than head), the forewing with two dark markings (Mantispidiptera: forewing immaculate), and the presence of free Cu stem (Mantispidiptera: Cu fused with R or A1). Judging from the distinctly differed forewing venations (especially the basal parts of R, M and Cu) between the two species of Mantispidiptera, they might eventually be verified to represent two different genera. Halteriomantispa gen. nov. differs from M. enigmatica by the following forewing features: presence of a straight ScA, the distally forked RA veinlets, the basal fusion of R and MP; while it is distinguished from M. henryi by the pectinately branched RP and the free stem of Cu.

Figures

Figures 1 – 2. Halteriomantispa grimaldii gen. et sp. nov., holotype female, habitus, left lateral view. 1. Photo. 2. Drawing. Abbreviation: alc—anterior lateral cervical sclerite; plc—posterior lateral cervical sclerite; e—ectoproct; es—episternum; hc—hypercauda; msc—mesoscutellum; gx—gonocoxite; T—tergum; phc—pseudohypercauda; Arrow indicates haltere – like hind wing. Scale bars = 1.0 mm.

Figures 3 – 4. Halteriomantispa grimaldii gen. et sp. nov., holotype female. 3. Right forewing, drawing. 4. Posteroproximal part of left forewing, microphotograph. Scale bars = 1.0 mm.

Figures 5 – 8. Revised interpretation on homology of forewing venations in Dipteromantispidae. 5. Halteriomantispa grimaldii gen. et sp. nov. (wing apex slightly reconstructed). 6. Dipteromantsipa brevisubcosta Makarkin, Yang & Ren. 7. Mantispidiptera enigmatica Grimaldi. 8. Mantispidiptera henryi Grimaldi (5 – 8 redrawn from Makarkin et al., 2013 a). Colored veins: MA (red), MP 1 (orange), MP 2 (green), CuA (blue), CuP (yellow) and A 1 (pink).

Figures 9 – 10. Halteriomantispa grimaldii gen. et sp. nov., holotype female, genitalia in right lateral view. 9. Microphotograph. 10. Drawing. Abbreviation: e—ectoproct; hc—hypercauda; gx—gonocoxite; T—tergum; phc—pseudohypercauda. Scale bars = 1.0 mm