Anchored between heaven and earth – a new flightless brown lacewing from Peru (Neuroptera, Hemerobiidae)

By

Aspöck, Ulrike
Aspöck, Horst
Gruppe, Axel

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020

Original Publication

Deutsche entomologische Zeitschrift

Volume

67

Pages

141--149

Subjects

brachyptery , coriaceous wings , flightlessness , high altitude , Nusalala peruana sp. nov

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Berlin Nicolai'sche Verlags-Buchandlung 1881-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/dez.67.56008

 

Abstract

Male and female of Nusalala peruana sp. nov., a flightless hemerobiid from the Andes mountain range of northern Peru, at a height of almost 4000 m, are described, figured and documented as the first record of a brachypterous, flightless species of Nusalala Navás, 1913, from this country. The other two congeneric, brachypterous species are from high altitudes in Colombia and Costa Rica and have been described in the male sex only – the females remain unknown. The coriaceous domed forewings are shared by all three brachypterous Nusalala species. The ribbon-like hindwings of the male of N. peruana sp. nov. are unique, since those of the other brachypterous males are scale-like, as are the hindwings of the female of N. peruana sp. nov. Distribution and evolutionary backgrounds of brachyptery and flightlessness in Neuropterida are discussed.