Elsevier

Cretaceous Research

Volume 30, Issue 5, October 2009, Pages 1217-1222
Cretaceous Research

Ascalochrysidae – a new lacewing family from the Mesozoic of China (Insecta: Neuroptera: Chrysopoidea)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2009.06.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Ascalochrysa megaptera gen. et sp. nov. is described from the Yixian Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of China. It is treated as belonging to the new family Ascalochrysidae fam. nov., closely related to Mesochrysopidae but easily distinguished from it in the hindwing venation features: e.g., numerous subcostal crossveins; branches of Rs widely, irregularly spaced and deeply branched; crossvenation rich, irregular; convex vein-like fold (‘M5’) before concave CuA present. The presence of well-developed ‘M5’ in the hind wing is interpreted to be plesiomorphic condition within the order. Ascalochrysidae are considered the sister group of Mesochrysopidae (s.l.).

Introduction

The taxonomic diversity of the Order Neuroptera was greatest in the Mesozoic. Several new neuropteran families have been described from this era in the last decade, i.e., Makarkiniidae (Martins-Neto, 2000), Grammolingiidae (Ren, 2002), Limaiidae, Tachinymphidae, Liassochrysidae (Nel et al., 2005), Aetheogrammatidae (Ren and Engel, 2008a). Although at least two of these are probably synonyms of other families (e.g., Makarkiniidae is a probable synonym of Kalligrammatidae: Makarkin and Archibald, 2003; Liassochrysidae is a synonym of Mantispidae: Wedmann and Makarkin, 2007), the description of new Mesozoic families should be expected in the future.

In this paper we describe a new genus and species of a large neuropteran from the Lower Cretaceous of China. We interpret this as a representative of the new family Ascalochrysidae fam. nov. belonging to Chrysopoidea. This superfamily was recently established to include several families, mainly extinct (Nel et al., 2005). We discuss the systematic position of Ascalochrysidae fam. nov. among chrysopoids, the family composition of this superfamily, and some important character states found in Ascalochrysa gen. nov., e.g., the presence of a convex vein-like fold before CuA.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

The specimen examined was collected near Chaomidian Village in Liaoning Province, NE China from the deposits of the Yixian Formation. All photographs were taken with a Nikon Digital Camera DXM1200C attached to a Leica MZ12.5 stereomicroscope. Drawing was done directly from the fossil with a camera lucida mounted on a Leica MZ12.5 stereomicroscope.

We follow here the traditional (sensu Wootton, 2003) venational terminology of Comstock (1918) with the current interpretation of Oswald, 1993,

Locality and stratigraphy

Fossils occurring in the Yixian and Jiufotang Formations of northeastern China constitute the Jehol Biota, an assemblage which is thought to have been widely distributed in eastern Asia during the Early Cretaceous (Chen, 1988, Chen et al., 1998, Zhou et al., 2003). The Yixian Formation consists mainly of lacustrine sediments intercalated with volcaniclastics (Ren et al., 1995). It is well known by a large number of exceptionally well-preserved fossils, including numerous insects,

Systematic paleontology

  • Class: Insecta Linnaeus, 1758

  • Order: Neuroptera Linnaeus, 1758

  • Superfamily: Chrysopoidea Schneider, 1851

  • Family: Ascalochrysidae fam. nov.

Type and only genus. Ascalochrysa gen. nov., from the Lower Cretaceous of China.

Diagnosis. Large neuropterans (hind wing approximately 60 mm long) of myrmeleontoid appearance, distinguished from other families by the following combination of hind wing character states: trichosors and nygmata absent; Sc and R1 fused distally; subcostal crossveins numerous, rather

Discussion

The current higher classification and phylogeny of the extant Neuroptera is mainly based on characters of larvae, genitalia of imagoes (e.g., Aspöck, 1995, Aspöck, 2001, Aspöck et al., 2001), and molecular data (Winterton, 2003, Haring and Aspöck, 2004). The incorporation of the data from the fossil taxa into such phylogenies is problematic, as the majority of these taxa are represented only by wings. There are only a few, very preliminary phylogenetic hypotheses which comprise both extant and

Acknowledgements

We thank James Jepson (University of Manchester, UK) for correcting the English. This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.30430100, 40872022), the Nature Science Foundation of Beijing (No.5082002) and Scientific Research Key Program and PHR Project of Beijing Municipal Commission of Education.

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