Fuscopolystoechotes Xu, Zheng, Shih & Wang, 2021

Xu, Yifan, Zheng, Bingyu, Fang, Hui, Shih, Chungkun, Ren, Dong & Wang, Yongjie, 2021, New fossil giant lacewings from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of China (Neuroptera, Ithonidae), Zootaxa 5067 (2), pp. 259-266 : 260

Genus Fuscopolystoechotes Xu, Zheng, Shih & Wang , gen. nov.

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Type and only species: Fuscopolystoechotes reticulatus Xu, Zheng, Shih & Wang , sp. nov.

Diagnosis. Forewing elongated, slightly broad with length-width ratio about 3; membrane fuscous, with the distinct transparent patches along the anterior and posterior margins; costal space narrow at base and then expanded to the max in proximal 1/5 of forewing, and subsequently narrowed gradually, with a distinctly shrinking region in distal half; humeral veinlet recurrent; presence of ScA; costal crossveins mostly biforked distally; absence of scp-ra crossvein; RP with more than 10 branches, RP1 deeply branched at the proximal half; crossveins in radial sector irregularly arranged except for the outer gradate series; M forked near the separated point of RP1 from RP; MA and MP bearing the similarly distal pectinate branches; Cu forked before the separated point of RP; CuA distinctly longer than CuP, forming the pectinate branches in distal; CuP with 3–4 pectinate branches, and each forming the secondary sub-branches; A1 dichotomously branched distally, A2 forked close to the base, A3 single branch, with several distal minor sub-branches.

Etymology. The new generic name is a combination of the Latin prefix fusc- and polystoechotes (the representative genus of the Polystoechotes genus-group), referring to dark brown markings of forewing. The gender is masculine.

Remarks. The new genus is clearly assigned to the Polystoechotes genus-group of Ithonidae for the combination of following characters: 1) forewing distinctly elongated ( cf. relatively broad in Ithone genus-group); 2) absence of interlinked veinlets in between costal crossveins ( cf. commonly present in Rapisma genus-group and Principiala genus-group); 3) Sc and RA fused distally ( cf. generally separated in Ithone genus-groups and Rapisma genus-groups); 4) crossveins in radial sector regularly arranged or relatively sparse ( cf. abundant and commonly irregularly arranged in other groups). The new genus is characterized by its special markings of forewing that is distinctly different from other genera of Polystoechotes genus-group except for Lichenipolystoechotes . However, the forewing markings in the new genus are distinctly broader and more regular comparing to Lichenipolystoechotes . In addition, their venation are also quite different, e.g., the branched costal crossveins, and the more complicated configuration of CuP, to justify setting up a new genus.