Miogeometrida Zhang, Shih & Shih, 2020

Zhang, Weiting, Shih, Chungkun, Shih, YuHong & Ren, Dong, 2020, A new macrolepidopteran moth (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Geometridae) in Miocene Dominican amber, ZooKeys 965, pp. 73-84 : 73

Genus Miogeometrida Zhang, Shih & Shih gen. nov.

Type species.

Miogeometrida chunjenshihi Zhang, Shih & Shih, sp. nov.

Etymology.

The generic name is a combination of the prefix “Mio-” in reference to the Miocene, and “geometrid” in reference to the family name. The gender is masculine.

Diagnosis of genus.

Body length ca 5.7 mm, wingspan ca 20 mm. Antenna filiform. Forewing without fovea, R1 not anastomosing with Sc, no areole formed by veins R1 and Rs, R1 and Rs1 completely coincident, M2 arising midway between M1 and M3, anal veins 1A and 2A fused for its entire length. Hind wing with Rs running close to Sc + R1, and M2 absent.

Remarks.

The new genus can be distinguished from most extant or extinct geometrids by the absence of an areole formed by veins R1 and Rs. As Miogeometrida gen. nov. lacks M2 on the hind wing, affiliation with other subfamilies than Ennominae is excluded. Miogeometrida gen. nov. differs from most genera of Ennominae in its forewing without fovea and R1 not anastomosing with Sc. Miogeometrida gen. nov. is similar to genera such as Ekboarmia ( Ennominae , Boarmiini , covered in Skou et al. 2017) and Iridopsis ( Ennominae , Boarmiini , covered in McGuffin 1977) in venation and the absence of a fovea, but the antennae of the latter are pectinated in males. Apart from this, extant Iridopsis are much larger than Miogeometrida gen. nov. on average. Miogeometrida gen. nov. also shows similarities with genera such as Milocera , Chelotephrina , Tephrina , Isturgia and Macaria ( Ennominae , Macariini , covered in Krüger 2001) in the forewing with R1 and Rs1 completely coincident and hind wing with two anal veins, but Miogeometrida gen. nov. differs from them in its forewing with 1A and 2A fused for their entire lengths.

Grimaldi and Engel (2005) mentioned three specimens of Geometridae from Dominican amber and provided a photo and a line drawing of one specimen ( Grimaldi and Engel 2005: 588, fig. 13: 59, 60). According to the line drawing ( Grimaldi and Engel 2005: 588, fig. 13: 60), the stem of M is present on its forewing. But in Miogeometrida gen. nov., the loss of the stem of M results in the formation of one large discal cell. Miogeometrida gen. nov. differs from the Eocene species Geometridites larentiiformis by the absence of the areole and R1 completely coincident with Rs1 on the forewing. Mérit and Mérit (2008) reported Miocene Problongos , whose forewing length is twice as long as that of Miogeometrida gen. nov. (22 mm vs. 8.9 mm).