Xenoberotha angustialata, Makarkin, Vladimir N., 2017

Makarkin, Vladimir N., 2017, An interesting new genus of Berothinae (Neuroptera: Berothidae) from the early Eocene Green River Formation, Colorado, Zootaxa 4226 (4), pp. 594-600 : 595-597

Xenoberotha angustialata sp. nov.

Figs 1 , 2

Holotype. UCM 80385a,b (part, counterpart), collected on 11 August 2009 by David Kohls, and deposited in UCM. An incomplete female specimen with the left forewing relatively well preserved, and the right hind wing fragmentarily preserved.

Type locality and horizon. UCM locality 2009063 (‘Claudia’s Place’), situated between East Fork and Middle Fork of Parachute Creek ; Garfield County, Colorado, U.S.A. Parachute Creek Member of the Green River Formation ; early Eocene (late Ypresian).

Etymology. From the Latin angustus, narrow, and alatus, winged, referring to the narrow forewings of the species.

Description. Female. Head poorly preserved except for well-preserved eyes. Antennae filiform, rather stout; scapus very short, transverse (length shorter than diameter); pedicellus not visible (or does not differ from basal flagellomeres); proximal flagellomeres transverse, covered with fine short setae.

Thorax very poorly preserved; details not visible. Abdomen apically with poorly preserved, long anteroventrally directed processes (probably hypocaudae of gonocoxite 9 or pseudohypocaudae of tergite 9).

Foreleg: coxae relatively short, stout, densely covered with short, dilated setae resembling scales ( Fig. 2 ); femora moderately stout, with few preserved, rather short setae; tibiae nearly as long as femur, densely covered with fine long setae, mainly in distal part. Mid-, hind legs poorly preserved.

Forewing very narrow, with hind margin distally excised; ca. 6.35 mm long, 1.55 mm wide. Costal space narrow; subcostal veinlets not preserved except one, once forked. ScP, RA probably distally fused; ScP+RA long, entering margin slightly proximad wing apex; some distal veinlets of ScP+RA with terminal fork. Three crossveins detected in RA space: 2ra-rp poorly preserved, located far proximad origin of RP1; 3ra-rp stout, dark, located between origins of RP2, RP3; 4ra-rp poorly preserved, located far distad presumable fusion of ScP, RA. RP originated far from wing base, with four branches. RP1 originating far distad origin RP; forked at outer gradate series, both branches shallowly forked; RP2 to RP4 distally with only shallow branching. 2r-m poorly preserved, connecting RP, MA rather far for fork of M. M appears not fused basally with R; forked slightly distad origin of RP; intramedial space rather broad basally. MA, MP similarly branched distally: both relatively deeply forked at gradate series, then all four branches shallowly forked one to four times. Cu dividing into CuA, CuP near wing base. Anterior trace of CuA distally shallowly forked, pectinate with four rather long branches, one short shallowly forked branch; two proximal-most branches originate from one point. CuP deeply forked, somewhat proximad fork of M; distal part not preserved. AA1 with three proximal-most branches originating from one point; distal part not preserved. AA2 probably pectinate, but poorly preserved (only one branch preserved). AA3 not detected. Outer (fourth) gradate series of crossveins nearly parallel to hind margin; four crossveins detected connecting RP2 to CuA. Trichosors fragmentarily preserved along hind margin. Color pattern: five crossveins of gradate series broadly margined with brown (i.e., 4ra-rp, 4rp1-rp2, 4r-m, 4im, 4m-cu); some distal forks of CuA, MA and MP inside pale brown.

Basal portion of right hind wing fragmentarily, poorly preserved, venation hard to interpret.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Xenoberotha angustialata gen. et sp. nov., holotype UCM 80385. A, the specimen as preserved (part). B, same (counterpart); both wetted with ethanol. C, the venation of the left forewing (converted to standard view, with apex to the right). Grey shadings show the color pattern. h, hypocauda; ph, pseudohypocauda. Scale bars = 1 mm.

FIGURE 2. Xenoberotha angustialata gen. et sp. nov., holotype UCM 80385. Head and forelegs, ventral view (wetted with ethanol). cx, coxa; fm, femur; sc, scapus; ti, tibia. Scale bar = 0.5 mm.