Sinonemoptera Zheng & Liu, 2025, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Zheng, Yuchen
name: Liu, Xingyue
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Neuroptera
Nemopteridae
Sinonemoptera

description: Genus Sinonemoptera gen. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: D68EE67D-F1E6-4826-9BE5- 4DA9ECBE7B47
Type species: Nemopistha sinica Yang, 1986.
Included species: Sinonemoptera sinica (Yang, 1986) comb. nov. and Sin. tibetana sp. nov.
Diagnosis: Body brown and pale yellow. Head hairless; diameter of male eye nearly equal to head width; clypeus nearly as long as frons; antenna longer than half length of forewing; scape and pedicel hairless; flagellum with a few short setae. Pronotum laterally with some black setae; meso- and metathorax with some short coniform setae. Forewing mostly hyaline; subcostal area pale yellow; basal five mediocubital crossveins each suffused with a brown marking; first cup-a1 crossvein suffused with a marking; RP originating from midlength of forewing. Hindwing basal c-sc and m-av crossveins each suffused with a brown marking; medially with a brown marking; distal part weakly dilated nearly at distal one-third, with a dark brown marking; apical part hyaline. Abdomen long, nearly twice as long as head plus thorax, male abdominal segments 3–8 each ≥1.5 times as long as wide. Male sternum 9 bifurcated on distal half and with slender setae; triangular in lateral view; twice as long as ectoproct. Male posterior gonocoxites 9 widely falcate in lateral view, distal part rounded in caudal view; gonostyli 11 shaped as a pair of upcurved short structures, gonocoxites 11 medially with a small process between gonostyli 11.
Etymology: The generic epithet is a combination of the Latin ‘ Sina ’ (China) and ‘ Nemoptera ’ (the type genus of Nemopteridae), in reference to the occurrence of the new genus only in China.
Distribution: China.
Biology: The two species of Sinonemoptera inhabit the Nujiang dry hot river valley in northwestern Yunnan and southeast Tibet. The adult emergence period ranges approximately from April to July. The plants that the adults visit for pollen-feeding and the larval biology are completely unknown. Both species are nocturnal, and the diurnal windy, dry, and hot river valley areas might limit their daytime activity. We observed that this genus was active at night, when the river valleys are relatively not windy.
Remarks: Based on our careful re-examination and comparison between all African Nemopistha species [including the holotypeandadditionalspecimensofthegenustype Nemopistha imperatrix (Westwood, 1867)] and Nemopistha sinica, we consider that the latter species should not be placed in Nemopistha. In Nemopistha sinica, the markings on the mediocubital area are present only on the basal five crossveins, the hindwing is dilated nearly at the distal one-third, the apical part of the hindwing is slender, and the distal half of male sternum 9 is bifurcated; in the African Nemopistha species, the markings on the mediocubital area are present on at least seven crossveins, the hindwing is dilated nearly at the distal one-quarter, the apical part of the hindwing is wider, and the distal half of male sternum 9 is not bifurcated with the distal margin protruded. In addition, Nemopistha is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa except for Nemopistha sinica, which is restricted to the dry and hot river valley of the Nujiang River in southwestern China. Hence, we establish a new genus, Sinonemoptera gen. nov., and transfer Nemopistha sinica to this new genus as the type species, i.e. Sin. sinica comb. nov.
description: Published as part of Zheng, Yuchen & Liu, Xingyue, 2025, A mysterious treasure originated from Africa: evolutionary history of the endangered spoon-winged lacewings (Neuroptera: Nemopteridae: Nemopterinae) from China, pp. 1-23 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 203 on page 7, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae026, http://zenodo.org/record/14802923