Lichenipolystoechotes fenestratus Xu, Fang, 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 : 262

Lichenipolystoechotes fenestratus Xu, Fang, Shih & Wang , sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:65E67F61-A863-41F4-92EC-2BC07B1EFF91

( Figs. 2 , 3 )

Etymology. The specific name fenestratus is a Latin word meaning “window-like”, referring to the diaphanous interior fenestrae in the forewing pattern of this species.

Material. Holotype. CNU−NEU−NN2020003 ( Fig. 2 ); Paratype. CNU−NEU−NN2020004 ( Fig. 3 ).

Type locality and horizon. Daohugou Village, Shantou Township, Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia, China; Jiulongshan Formation, Callovian-Oxfordian boundary, late Middle Jurassic.

Diagnosis. Forewing broad, length-width ratio about 2.7; RP with about 36 branches; crossveins in radial sector rare except for two rows of outer and inner gradate series; RP1 deeply branched.

Description. Forewing oval shaped, about 26 mm long, and 9.4 mm wide; trichosors well-defined; membrane with the distinctive disruptive markings, forming 14–15 transparent fenestrae along the margin and five large fenestrae in the middle; humeral veinlet recurrent; costal crossveins mostly simple except for the distal part; ScA present; ScP and RA fused distally; the region between ScP and RA relatively narrow, no crossveins present in between; eleven crossveins preserved between RA–RP area; RP with 36 close-set branches; crossveins in RP area relatively scarce, only one outer gradate series completely present, and the inner gradate series also partly present; the first branch of RP forked deeply with several bifurcated branches; M bifurcated basally, forming relatively abundant pectinate branches distally; CuA branched in middle, forming ca. 10 oblique pectinate branches; CuP simply biforked once, with distal bifurcated branches; A1 and A2 well-developed, forked three times each; A3 residually present.

The paratype shows a lighter membrane with similar markings. The venations of holotype and paratype are basically the same with an exception of a plausible difference, i.e. the absence of gradate series of crossveins in paratype. However, this character is possibly not genuine because the crossveins in RP area are commonly difficultly visible owing to the overlapped wings .

Remarks. The new species can be easily attributed to Lichenipolystoechotes for the typical markings and highly similar venation, i.e. the length of the wing, the presence of complicated disruptive markings and diverse fenestrae in forewing, the similar configurations of M branches, the multi-branched CuA with 7−11 branches and the bifurcated CuP ( Fang et al., 2020). Nevertheless, the new species can be differentiated from the known Lichenipolystoechotes species for the number of RP branches (36 branches in the new species vs. 18 in L. angustimaculatus and 22 branches in L. ramimaculatus ). In addition, the branched pattern of the first branch of RP in the new species is also different from other species with more complicated branches.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Lichenipolystoechotes fenestratus Xu, Fang, Shih & Wang, sp. nov. (A–B). (A) Holotype of L. fenestratus, CNU−NEU−NN2020003. (B) Overlay drawing of holotype of L. fenestratus, with forewing pattern. Scale bars: 5 mm in A–B.

FIGURE 3. Lichenipolystoechotes fenestratus Xu, Fang, Shih & Wang, sp. nov. (A–B). (A) Paratype of L. fenestratus, CNU−NEU−NN2020004. (B) Overlay drawing of paratype of L. fenestratus, with forewing pattern. Scale bars: 5 mm in A–B.