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

Abstract

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 [xnlian@nigpas.ac.cn ], Chenyang Cai [cycai@nigpas.ac.cn ] and Diying Huang [dyhuang@nigpas.ac.cn ], 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.