Sympherobius siriae Jepson, Penney & Green

Jepson, James E., Penney, David & Green, David I., 2010, A new species of brown lacewing (Neuroptera: Hemerobiidae) from Eocene Baltic amber, Zootaxa 2692, pp. 61-68 : 62-64

Sympherobius siriae Jepson, Penney & Green , sp. nov.

Figs 1–2

Etymology. Named after Siri Penney; the daughter of the second author.

Material. GPIH 4665. Known only from the holotype.

Diagnosis. 4rs2-rs1 crossvein absent; more proximal position of 1m-cu crossvein; long and slender pronotum; crossveins of third and fourth gradate series margined with dark brown.

Description. Head in lateral view; 1 mm long, 0.4 mm wide. Eyes large: 0.5 mm long, 0.38 mm wide. Antennae: scape larger than pedicle, but pedicle larger than first flagellar segments; left and right flagella both 44-segmented. Mouthparts slightly obscured by fracture in amber. Maxillary palpi 5-segmented, labial palpi obscured. Pronotum 0.5 mm long, 0.3 mm wide. Femur, tibia, tarsus. Abdominal terminalia obscured by wings.

Forewing oval with rounded apex, 5.9 mm long, 2.5 mm wide. Trichosors along entire wing margin. Costal space broader basally. Majority of prestigmal subcostal veinlets branched basally becoming simple distally; stigmal subcostal veinlets mainly simple, some forked. Recurrent humeral vein, pectinately branched, with four branches. Subcostal space moderately wide for length, with 2 crossveins. R1 forked apically. Three separate branches originating from R [ORBs]. ORB 1 [Rs1], ORB 2 [Rs2] both simple most of length, forking well past mid-point of vein. ORB 1 dichotomously forked to 7 veins terminating at posterior wing margin, ORB 2 dichotomously forked to 4 veins terminating at posterior wing margin. ORB 3 possesses 2 branches [Rs 3 and 4] originating proximal to third [Rs3] and fourth [Rs4] gradate series. M appears fused basally with R for short distance. M forks proximally to second gradate series; MA, MP parallel for most of distance before forking 0.8 mm from wing margin. MP more forked than MA. CuA pectinately branched with three branches all with marginal forking. CuP with one marginal fork. 1A with five pectinate branches, 2A with 2 pectinate branches. 3A with 2 branches. Four gradate series of crossveins (series 1–4 of Oswald 1993) posterior to R1. First series crossveins: 1m-cu, 1cu-a1, 1a1-a2. 1a2-a3 not observed. Second series crossveins: 2r-m, 2m-cu, 2icu. Third (‘inner’) series crossveins: from 3r1-rs–3m-cu. Fourth (‘outer’) series crossveins: from 4r1-rs–4rs3-rs2; 4rs2-rs1 absent. Crossveins absent between branches of CuA. Wing without markings, slightly fuscous; crossveins in third and fourth gradate series appear margined with dark brown. Hind wing obscured by forewing.

Comments. The specimen has been placed in the genus Sympherobius on the basis of size and wing venation. Unfortunately the terminalia is obscured by the wings. It is very similar to Sympherobius completus Makarkin et Wedmann, 2009 but differs from it by the absence of crossvein 4rs2-rs1 and position of 1m-cu crossvein more proximal. Also, the crossveins of the gradate series of S. completus (holotype) do not have a dark brown margin. After examining numerous extant specimens from three species ( S. pygmaeus ( Rambur, 1842) , S. elegans ( Stephens, 1836) and S. fuscescens (Wallengren, 1863)) in the collections of The Manchester Museum, it appears that the variables used to identify S. siriae sp. nov. are not intraspecific. Therefore, the erection of a new species is justified.

Figures

FIGURE 1. A. Photograph of Sympherobius siriae sp. nov. Scale bar represents 1 mm, B. close-up view of S. siriae sp. nov. head. Scale bar represents 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 2. Forewing venation drawing of Sympherobius siriae sp. nov. Scale bar represents 1 mm.