Description of Caurinus tlagu, new species, from Prince of Wales Island, Alaska (Mecoptera, Boreidae, Caurininae)

Abstract

A new species of the cryptic, minute, wingless, and enigmatic taxon Caurinus, and the second for the subfamily Caurininae, is described from Prince of Wales Island in the Alexander Archipelago, Alaska. It is distinguished from its only congener, Caurinus dectes Russell, 1979b, which occurs 1,059 km southeast in Oregon and Washington, based on external morphology and sequences of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome oxidase II. These two species are probably evolutionary relicts –the only known members of a clade dating to the Late Jurassic or older.