Laccosmylus Ren & Yin, 2003

Fang, Hui, Ren, Dong, Liu, Jiaxi & Wang, Yongjie, 2018, Revision of the lacewing genus Laccosmylus with two new species from the Middle Jurassic of China (Insecta, Neuroptera, Saucrosmylidae), ZooKeys 790, pp. 115-126 : 117

Genus Laccosmylus Ren & Yin, 2003

Type species.

Laccosmylus calophlebius Ren & Yin, 2003.

Species included.

Laccosmylus calophlebius Ren & Yin, 2003; Laccosmylus cicatricatus sp. n.; Laccosmylus latizonus sp. n.

Emended diagnosis.

Large body size, body length more than 35 mm, forewing length approx. 60-80 mm, hind wing length approx. 55-76 mm. Forewing elongated, with undulant outer margin. Hind wing broader and shorter than forewing, with slightly undulant outer margin. Forewing and hind wing with similar venation, i.e., presence of 6-7 rows of smaller veinlets between costal veinlets; RA-RP area expanded, with 4 to 7 rows of irregular cells; RP sharply bent towards RA anteriorly, forming an angle of approx. 45°; space between other longitudinal veins producing 1 to 4 rows of cells.

Remarks.

Laccosmylus Ren & Yin, 2003 was assigned to Saucrosmylidae according to its expanded RA area and complicated wing venation of hind wing (Ren & Yin, 2003). Nevertheless, this remarkable genus was established without forewing information which prevent to conduct full comparisons with other saucrosmylids. Herein, the newly collected fossil specimen related to the genus provides significant forewing information to address the issue. The new specimen CNU-NEU-NN2018007P/C of L. cicatricatus sp. n. clearly belongs to Laccosmylus because of the similar characters of hind wing (Figs 1, 2, 3), i.e. the same broad wing shape with undulant outer margin, the similar patches and spots markings in hind wing, the same expanded RA area with seven rows of irregular cells, the same longitudinal veins and similar cross-veins.

This new species of L. cicatricatus sp. n. and L. latizonus sp. n. together with a new specimen of L. calophlebius Ren & Yin, 2003 provide significant information, especially the supplement of forewing features, to corroborate the status of Laccosmylus . Laccosmylus is definitely different from Rudiosmylus Ren & Yin, 2003, Ulrikezza Fang, Ren & Wang, 2015 and Huiyingosmylus Liu et al., 2013 by its sharply bent RP at terminal of the wing and unique patch-like and stripe-like wing markings, in contrast to the three genera bearing slightly bent RP and spot-like wing markings ( Ren and Yin 2003, Liu et al. 2013, Fang et al. 2015). Laccosmylus is different from Saucrosmylus Ren & Yin, 2003 by its deeply un dulant outer margin of forewing and broad hind wing, while Saucrosmylus only has slightly undulant outer margin in both wings and slender hind wing ( Ren and Yin 2003). Comparing to Daohugosmylus Liu et al., 2014 that was established by an incomplete hind wing, Laccosmylus possesses the undulant outer margin of hind wing, pigmented wing marking at the basal part of hind wing and more rows of smaller veinlets between costal veinlets in hind wing, which are absent in Daohugosmylus ( Liu et al. 2014). Interestingly, Laccosmylus possesses similar forewing shape with Bellinympha , however, both of the two species of Bellinympha have pinnate-like markings on forewings and three continuous markings on hind wings, and bearing slender hind wings ( Wang et al. 2010), while Laccosmylus develops patch-like or stripe-like wing markings on both wings and bears broad hind wings.