A New Species of Aetheogrammatidae (Insecta: Neuroptera) with a Preserved Proboscis from the Lower Cretaceous of NE China

• 作者: CHEN Jun KHRAMOV Alexander V.
• 来源期刊: 地质学报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2020,（5）
• 所属期刊栏目: RESEARCH ADVANCES
• 页码范围: 1714-1715
• 页数: 2页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

Objective The Aetheogrammatidae is a small family of extinct Neuroptera, which comprises six species in five genera,described from the Middle Jurassic to the Lower Cretaceous of China and Kazakhstan.They are easily distinguishable due to their highly derived venation with apical portion of R1 branched in the manner of Rs.Because of dense crossveins, broad shaped wings and other shared characters Aetheogrammatidae are thought to be closely related to Kalligrammatidae, the diverse group of butterfly-like Neuroptera with a long proboscis, which could have played a role in pollination of Mesozoic gymnosperms.However, until now, no information has been available on the mouthpart morphology of Aetheogrammatidae, except for an undescribed specimen from the Lower Cretaceous of Liaoning Province, whose photo was published in the fossil catalogue.Herein, for the first time, we describe a new species of Aetheogrammatidae based on a nearly complete specimen with preserved mouthparts.