Nilionympha shantouensis, Li & Ren & Wang, 2018

Li, Qinghua, Ren, Dong & Wang, Yongjie, 2018, Revision of the gumilline genus Nilionympha with a new species from the Middle Jurassic of China (Neuroptera: Osmylidae), Zootaxa 4399 (1), pp. 146-150 : 148-149

Nilionympha shantouensis sp. nov. ( Fig. 2 )

Etymology: The species named after the fossil locality of Shantou Township, Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia.

Type material. Holotype, CNU-NEU-NN 200211, with only well-preserved forewing and partly preserved hind wing, body fragmentary ( Fig. 2A ).

Locality and horizon. Daohugou Village, Shantou Township, Ningcheng County, Chifen City, Inner Mongolia, China; Jiulongshan Formation, Middle Jurassic.

Diagnosis. Forewing with three rs-mp crossveins; twelve Rs branches; MA separating from Rs at basal quarter of wing length; MP forked near wing base; CuA deeply bifurcated before wing midlength; CuP simply pectinated, terminated before wing midlength. In hind wing, two rs-mp crossveins; Rs with eleven branches; MA separating from Rs before one-third of wing length; MP straight with forking apically; CuA simply forked after wing midlength; CuP slightly shorter than CuA, pectinately branched.

Description: Body length (from the apex of head to the terminalia of abdomen) 12.3 mm; head hypognathous, antenna extremely long, scape prominent, large and robust; pedicel small; flagellum filiform; compound eye large, but ocelli absent.

Forewing: 22.1 mm long, 7.7 mm wide, a row of markings along the subcostal space on membrane. Trichosors poorly developed apically; possibly one or two trichosors between each vein at apically posterior wing margin. Costal space relatively narrow. Subcostal veinlets simple, straight, rather widely spaced. Sc and R1 fused anterior to the wing apex. Rs originating nearly at wing base, zigzagged, with 11 long zigzagged branches. MA separating from Rs at one third of wing length. MP forked into MP1 and MP2 near wing base, straight for most of their length and dichotomously branched distally, with one complete row of cells between MP branches; CuA long, dichotomously branched deeply before midlength of wing; CuP pectinately branched ( Fig. 2B ).

Hind wing elongated and relatively narrow, 20.2 mm long, 7.3 mm wide, partly preserved, venation similar to forewing; Rs with eleven branches; MA separating from Rs before one-third of wing length; MP simple, bifurcated distally; CuA simply branched distally; CuP long, pectinately branched ( Fig. 2C ).

Remarks. The new species can be attributed to Nilionympha for sharing the proximal divergence of MA from Rs and numerous Rs branches. N. shantouensis sp. nov. is easily identified by the presence of a row of dark spots (at least eight black spots) along with Sc and R1 that are evidently absent in N. pulchella . Additionally the new species is also differentiated from N. pulchella according to the position of fusion of Sc and R 1 in forewing and simply branched CuA in hind wing.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Enodinympha shantouensis sp. nov. (holotype CNU-NEU-NN200211). A. habitus photograph. B. line drawing of forewing.C.line drawing of hindwing.Scale bars:3 mm (A–C).