New genera and species of parachoristids (Insecta: Mecoptera) from the Tongchuan entomofauna of Shaanxi Province, northwestern China

Abstract

Parachoristidae, one of the most characteristic mecopteran families of the late Permian and Triassic, is widely distributed throughout the world, but only one species has been described from China thus far. Two new genera and three new species of Parachoristidae are here described and illustrated from the late Middle Triassic Tongchuan entomofauna: Sinoparachorista rara gen. et sp. nov., Virgulaparachorista tongchuanensis gen. et sp. nov., and V. elegans gen. et sp. nov. These two new genera can be placed in Parachoristidae unambiguously based on the presence of a two-branched Sc with rounded fork, pectinate Rs, M with at least six branches, and M₂ with two branches. The new discovery enriches the palaeodiversity of parachoristids in the Triassic of China and considerably expands the known morphological disparity of wing venation in Parachoristidae.

Xinneng Lian [[email protected]],

Chenyang Cai [[email protected]

] and Diying Huang [[email protected]], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China.

Keywords:

• morphological disparity
• Ordos Basin
• Tongchuan Formation
• Tongchuan entomofauna
• biodiversity

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dany Azar, Jian Gao, Ziwei Yin and Yanzhe Fu for their help with fieldwork.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [41925008, 42288201] and Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDB26000000].