Necroraphidia Perez-de la Fuente, Penalver , Delclos & Engel

Fuente, Ricardo Perez-de la, Penalver, Enrique, Delclos, Xavier & Engel, Michael S., 2012, Snakefly diversity in Early Cretaceous amber from Spain (Neuropterida, Raphidioptera), ZooKeys 204, pp. 1-40 : 9-10

Necroraphidia Perez-de la Fuente, Penalver, Delclos & Engel gen. n.

Type species.

Necroraphidia arcuata sp. n.

Diagnosis.

Small size; costal field very broad; pterostigma with a single, subdistal, strongly oblique, slightly sinuose to arcuate crossvein; pterostigma with a diffuse base; forewing with Rs and MA each forked twice; forewing with second radial cell proximally broad.

Etymology.

The new genus-group name is a combination of the Greek word nekros, meaning, “dead”, and Raphidia , common generic stem for snakeflies. The name is feminine.

Comments.

Necroraphidia gen. n. is most similar to Ororaphidia and Styporaphidia from the Late Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China ( Engel and Ren 2008). These three genera show the very diagnostic character of a diffuse base to the pterostigma, lacking a crossvein as the proximal boundary of this wing region (figs 4 D–E). Also, they share the presence of, at least, one pterostigmal crossvein subdistally, three discoidal cells posterior to MP in the forewing (forming a triangle), and a larger size if compared with other minute mesoraphidiids. Caloraphidia glossophylla Ren, 1997 (combination restored by Bechly and Wolf-Schwenninger 2011) shares these three characters, but it lacks the diffuse pterostigmal base according to Ren (1997: p. 184, fig. 11). Hence, to consider this species as closely related (i.e., as an ororaphidiine in their system) as suggested by Bechly and Wolf-Schwenninger (2011) seems dubious. Necroraphidia can be separated from Styporaphidia by the presence of a single pterostigmal crossvein (two in Styporaphidia ) and the three branches of both Rs and MA (two branches in Styporaphidia ), while it can be distinguished most readily from Ororaphidia by the strongly oblique and arcuate shape of the pterostigmal crossvein (less oblique and straight in Ororaphidia ), the proximally broader second radial cell (narrowly triangular proximad in Ororaphidia ), the smaller second discoidal cell, and also by the smaller size (forewing length 11.4 in Ororaphidia ) ( Engel and Ren 2008).