Family Ipsviciidae Tillyard, 1919

Ipsviciidae Tillyard, 1919: 866, 878, 860, 862, 865, 891, 892

Willcoxiidae: Tillyard, 1919: 865 (nomen nudum) (lapsus calami)

Ipswicidae (sic): Jeannel, 1947: 72; Jeannel, 1979: 72

Ipswiciidae (sic): Jeannel, 1949: 82

Ipswichidae (sic): Jeannel, 1960: 309

Ipsviciidae Tillyard, 1920 (sic): Fujiyama, 1973: 372

Emended diagnosis. Tegmen tuberculate/punctate, with sculpture quite coarse basally merging to slightly finer apically; costal margin convex, apex narrowly rounded, posterior margin straight; well-developed marginal membrane, somewhat widened postero-apically; without a hypocostal pit, lower carina of the basal costal space, or nodal groove; bSc variably weakly to strongly convex; costal fracture forwardly curved, arising from apex of basal cell or from extreme base of R; dSc a long, shallow groove running along a broad costal space from near base of R just beyond costal fracture and petering out at around level of 1r-m, crossed by 4–6 costal veinlets; basal cell triangular, closed by vein fusion at a single point; R with numerous variable terminal branches extending to tegmen apex; M and CuA fused for a variable length beyond basal cell; M not strongly bent towards CuA at nodal level, with 3 or 4 branches terminating on postero-apical margin; apical venation very variable; at least two r-m; CuA simple; clavus occupying no more than 0.7 tegmen length; space behind PCu+1A very narrow.

Description. Head apparently small, ovate, dorsal surface tuberculate to irregularly rugose (Fig. 36, and possible ipsviciid nymph—Fig. 39), rostrum (in possible ipsviciid nymph—Fig. 39) very long, extending beyond abdominal sternite 5. Pronotum two times wider than long, expanded antero-laterally as a pair of paranotal-like lobes, anterior and posterior margins more or less straight, the whole densely tuberculate to irregularly rugose, with a pair of small oval areas antero-medially somewhat smoother (Figs 8, 10, 37); pronotum completely covering mesoscutum with only mesoscutellum exposed (Fig. 36); mesoscutum smooth with a pair of oblique ridges converging posteriorly; mesoscutellum very small, coarsely tuberculate with a small rugose area subapically and a pair of small, smoother depressed areas anteriorly (Figs 7, 37). Abdominal tergites smooth, spiracle-bearing pleurites finely punctate (Figs 7, 37), female with siphonate ovipositor (Fig. 38).

Notes. The above diagnosis is a listing of the tegmen character states of Ipsvicia and Ipsviciopsis compared with the diagnostic characters recorded by Shcherbakov (1984, 2011) for the other families of Scytinopteroidea—Scyti-nopteridae, Serpentivenidae, Stenoviciidae, Paraknightiidae and Saaloscytinidae, as illustrated by Evans (1943, 1950, 1963), Becker-Migdisova (1962a), Martins-Neto et al. (2006), Lambkin (2016), as well as Shcherbakov (1984, 2011). Of this list, the stand-out diagnostic characters of the family are the unique form of dSc, the R field occupying the apex of the tegmen, the complex and variable apical venation, and the apparently simple CuA. Of particular note is the absence of the hypocostal pit at the base of the costal margin. The pit grasped the mesipemeral knob to lock the tegmen in place (Shcherbakov 1996), and is characteristic of the Scytinopteridae (Lambkin 2016), but is absent also in the Saaloscytinidae (Shcherbakov 2011) . With the exception of Ipsvicia langenbergensis, the other confirmed members of the family (see discussion above) have not been considered in the diagnosis due to their inadequate preservation. Little is known of the head, thorax and abdomen in the other five scytinoperoid families. Paraknightia magnifica Evans, 1943 (Paraknightiidae) is similar to the Ipsviciidae in the shape of the pronotum with paranotal-like lobes and the presence of a siphonate ovipositor, although its mesoscutellum appears to be somewhat larger (Evans 1943, figs 24a, 24b). On the other hand, Scytinoptera cubitalis Becker-Migdisova, 1948 (Scytinopteridae) has a much broader head, pronotum without paranotal lobes, and also a much larger mesoscutellum (Becker-Migdisova 1948, fig. 49).