Morphological phylogenetic analyses and taxonomic revision of the Panorpa davidi group (Mecoptera: Panorpidae)

Abstract The Chinese Panorpa species without anal horn are normally assigned to the Panorpa davidi group. Here, we taxonomically revise the P. davidi group, which currently includes 17 known species and four new species: P. gaokaii sp. nov., P. huayuani sp. nov., P. uncinata sp. nov. and P. yaoluopingensis sp. nov. Panorpa shanyangensis Chou & Wang, 1981 and P. sexspinosa zhongnanensis Chou & Ran, 1981 are treated as junior synonyms of P. sexspinosa Cheng, 1949. We describe for the first time the male of P. stigmosa Zhou, 2006, and the females of P. curva Carpenter, 1938, P. davidi Navás, 1908, P. difficilis Carpenter, 1938, P. fructa Cheng, 1949, and P. jinchuana Hua, Sun & Li, 2001. A key to species of the group is provided. Phylogenetic analyses of maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood based on 79 morphological characters show that the newly defined P. davidi group is a well-supported monophyletic group and is sister to the genus Cerapanorpa Gao, Ma & Hua, 2016.