Coniopteryx (Scotoconiopteryx), Meinander, 1972

Gruppe, Axel & Aspöck, Ulrike, 2020, The giant “ penis ” of a newly described species in the subgenus Scotoconiopteryx from Peru (Neuroptera: Coniopterygidae: Coniopteryginae: Coniopteryx), Zootaxa 4748 (2), pp. 396-400 : 396-397

Subgenus Scotoconiopteryx Meinander, 1972

Meinander’s description of the genital sclerites (1972) is in conformity with Tjeder (1954, 1957). The terminology used here to describe the genital sclerites of the subgenus Scotoconiopteryx has been transformed by the gonocoxite hypothesis of U. Aspöck & H. Aspöck (2008) and the following is a brief summary (with Tjeder’s terms in parentheses): Gonocoxite 9 (gonarcus) and sternite 9 (hypandrium) synscleritous. Gonocoxite 9 with a ventral apodeme, but caudally

not connected. Bases of gonapophyses 9 (styli) attached to apex of gonocoxites 9. Gonapophyses 9 not forked, but fused into an arch below gonocoxites 10 (parameres). Sternite 9 (hypandrium) in lateral view higher than broad. Between the processus lateralis and processus terminalis in most species is an additional process, termed the processus intermedius. Gonocoxites 10 (parameres) apically bent downwards. No processus apicalis. Gonapophyses 10 (penis) consisting of one or two long narrow straight rods.

Since Meinander’s original description (1972) did not amount to an expressis verbis differential diagnosis, the following characters are therefore proposed as synapomorphic and as diagnostic characters for the subgenus Scotoconiopteryx :

1) Membrane of wings brownish (as indicated by Meinander (1972)) with small hyaline fields; 2) Forewing with verruciform thickenings on several veins; 3) Anal region in the hindwing distinct.