Fuscopolystoechotes Xu, Zheng, Shih & Wang, 2021

Xu, Yifan, Zheng, Bingyu, Fang, Hui, Shih, Chungkun, Ren, Dong & Wang, Yongjie, 2021, New fossil giant lacewings from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of China (Neuroptera, Ithonidae), Zootaxa 5067 (2), pp. 259-266 : 260

Genus Fuscopolystoechotes Xu, Zheng, Shih & Wang , gen. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:504F861B-6DE0-4C99-B962-0E12E3C83164

Type and only species: Fuscopolystoechotes reticulatus Xu, Zheng, Shih & Wang , sp. nov.

Diagnosis. Forewing elongated, slightly broad with length-width ratio about 3; membrane fuscous, with the distinct transparent patches along the anterior and posterior margins; costal space narrow at base and then expanded to the max in proximal 1/5 of forewing, and subsequently narrowed gradually, with a distinctly shrinking region in distal half; humeral veinlet recurrent; presence of ScA; costal crossveins mostly biforked distally; absence of scp-ra crossvein; RP with more than 10 branches, RP1 deeply branched at the proximal half; crossveins in radial sector irregularly arranged except for the outer gradate series; M forked near the separated point of RP1 from RP; MA and MP bearing the similarly distal pectinate branches; Cu forked before the separated point of RP; CuA distinctly longer than CuP, forming the pectinate branches in distal; CuP with 3–4 pectinate branches, and each forming the secondary sub-branches; A1 dichotomously branched distally, A2 forked close to the base, A3 single branch, with several distal minor sub-branches.

Etymology. The new generic name is a combination of the Latin prefix fusc- and polystoechotes (the representative genus of the Polystoechotes genus-group), referring to dark brown markings of forewing. The gender is masculine.

Remarks. The new genus is clearly assigned to the Polystoechotes genus-group of Ithonidae for the combination of following characters: 1) forewing distinctly elongated (cf. relatively broad in Ithone genus-group); 2) absence of interlinked veinlets in between costal crossveins (cf. commonly present in Rapisma genus-group and Principiala genus-group); 3) Sc and RA fused distally (cf. generally separated in Ithone genus-groups and Rapisma genus-groups); 4) crossveins in radial sector regularly arranged or relatively sparse (cf. abundant and commonly irregularly arranged in other groups). The new genus is characterized by its special markings of forewing that is distinctly different from other genera of Polystoechotes genus-group except for Lichenipolystoechotes . However, the forewing markings in the new genus are distinctly broader and more regular comparing to Lichenipolystoechotes . In addition, their venation are also quite different, e.g., the branched costal crossveins, and the more complicated configuration of CuP, to justify setting up a new genus.