ZooKeys (Aug 2013)

The presence of the recurrent veinlet in the Middle Jurassic Nymphidae (Neuroptera): a unique character condition in Myrmeleontoidea

  • Vladimir Makarkin,
  • Qiang Yang,
  • Chaofan Shi,
  • Ren Dong

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.325.5453
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 325, no. 0
pp. 1 – 20

Abstract

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A well-developed recurrent veinlet is found in the forewing of two species of Nymphidae from the Middle Jurassic locality of Daohugou (Inner Mongolia, China), Liminympha makarkini Ren & Engel and Daonymphes bisulca gen. et sp. n. This is the first record of this trait in the clade comprised of the superfamilies Myrmeleontoidea and Chrysopoidea. We interpret the recurrent veinlet in these species as a remnant of the condition present more basally in the psychopsoid + ithonoid + chrysopoid + myrmeleontoid clade (i.e., as a plesiomorphy). Other venational character states of D. bisulca of interest include the configuration of subcosta anterior (ScA), which is very similar to that of extant Nymphidae. We consider the short ScA terminating on ScP to be an autapomorphy of Neuroptera.