TAXONOMIC NOTES ON THE DILARIDiE 
(NEUROPTERA) 1 
By F. M. Carpenter 
Harvard University 
The little-known family Dilaridse has been represented 
in the New World by two genera, N ulema and N allacinus. 
N ulema, which is based upon championi Navas (1914), 
from Guatemala, is very close to N allachius and may turn 
out to be synonymous with it. N allachius has included 
seven species from the Neotropical and Nearctic regions. 
Its genotype, prestoni McLachlan, has been inadequately 
known, the type of the species only recently becoming 
available for study at the British Museum. In reply to 
my inquiry about this type, Mr. D. E. Kimmins kindly 
sent me excellent drawings of its venation and abdomen. 
On the basis of this information and the examination of 
specimens of other species in the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology, I am redefining here the genus N allachius , 
with a review of the known species; describing a new 
species of N allachius from Paraguay; and proposing a 
new genus for one of Banks’ species from Colombia. 
Navas’ grouping of the dilarid genera into two tribes, 
Dilarini and Nallachiini, was mainly based upon the width 
of the subcostal space and the number of subcostal vein- 
lets. In all probability, however, the width of the sub- 
costal space is merely correlated with the size of the insect 
and does not represent a phylogenetic division of the 
family. On the number of subcostal veinlets Navas was 
clearly in error, for in this respect not even the genotype 
of N allachius fits his definition of the genus. He also 
pointed out that whereas all the Dilarini are restricted to 
the Old World, the Nallachiini occur exclusively in the 
New World. This is no longer true, however, for her- 
mosa Banks, from Colombia, obviously falls into the Dila- 
rini. In defense of Navas’ classification, however, it 
should be noted that there are certain general differences 
i Published by a grant from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Har- 
vard College. 
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