Terrobittacus, a new genus of the Chinese Bittacidae (Mecoptera) with descriptions of two new species

Abstract

Terrobittacus Tan and Hua, gen. nov., the third genus of the family Bittacidae from the Oriental part of China, is established with Bittacus implicatus Huang and Hua, 2006 as its type species. Terrobittacus longisetus sp. nov. and Terrobittacus xiphicus sp. nov. are described from Hunan and Guizhou, respectively. Terrobittacus implicatus (Huang and Hua, 2006) and Terrobittacus echinatus (Hua and Huang, 2008), two new combinations, are transferred from Bittacus Latreille. A key to the species of the genus Terrobittacus is provided. The biology of T. implicatus is briefly noted with descriptions and illustrations of its eggs and larvae.

Keywords:

• Mecoptera
• Bittacidae
• Terrobittacus
• taxonomy
• biology

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Prof. Wanzhi Cai and Xinli Wang (China Agricultural University, Beijing) for kindly arranging the loans of specimens from their collections. Thanks are also extended to Dr Lijun Cai, Miss Huifeng Zhou and Mr Xiaoliang Du for their assistance in the specimen collections, and to Dr Wen Zhong for his assistance in taking photographs. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their critical reading of an early version of the manuscript. Dr Renato Machado (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Brasil) is appreciated for his permission to access his manuscript before its publication in Zootaxa. This research was financially supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 30370179 and 30970386) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST grant no. 2006FY120100).