Palaeoneura Waterhouse 1915
Creators: name: Huber, John T.
name: Read, Jennifer D.
name: Triapitsyn, Serguei V.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Mymaridae
Palaeoneura

description: PALAEONEURA Waterhouse, 1915
(Figs 750–799)
Palaeoneura Waterhouse, 1915: 537. Type species: Palaeoneura interrupta Waterhouse, 1915, by subsequent designation by Gahan & Fagan, 1923: 103.
Chaetomymar Ogloblin, 1946: 277. Type species Chaetomymar kusnezovi Ogloblin, by original designation. Synonymy by Triapitsyn & Berezovskiy, 2007: 38.
Acanthomymar Subba Rao, 1970: 667. Type species: Acanthomymar nigrum Subba Rao, 1970, by original designation. Synonymy by Triapitsyn & Berezovskiy, 2007: 38 (from previous synonymy under Polynema Haliday by Huber, 2003: 80).
Barypolynema (Tarphypolynema) Ogloblin, 1960: 79. Type species: Anagrus saga Ogloblin, 1960, by original designation. Synonymy under Polynema by Triapitsyn & Fidalgo, 2006: 60; synonymy under Palaeoneura by Triapitsyn, 2018b: 35.
Diagnosis. Body length 515–920 μm. Propleura abutting anterior to prosternum (Figs 762–764, 786, 787); fore wing with slight to distinct narrowing beyond apex of venation, the posterior margin of wing slightly to distinctly sinuate with a correspondingly slight to distinct lobe (Figs 753, 777); mesoscutum with notauli wide (Figs 776, 784) or narrow (Figs 752, 760); axilla sometimes with long axillar seta (Figs 752, 760); propodeum with a short median carina (Figs 752, 760) or without (Figs 776, 784).
Discussion. Among the nine other Nearctic genera of the Polynema group (Acmopolynema, Caraphractus, Cnecomymar, Eustochus, Kalopolynema, Mymar, Neomymar, Polynema, Stephanodes), Palaeoneura is defined first by elimination of eight of them, i.e., all of the above except Polynema (see key). Depending on the subgenus of Polynema different features must be used to distinguish Palaeoneura from them. Palaeoneura is distinguished from P. (Polynema) by the propleura abutting medially, sometimes only narrowly, anterior to prosternum whereas the propleura do not abut in P. (Polynema). Palaeoneura is distinguished from Polynema (Doriclytus), by not having pits between the toruli whereas P. (Doriclytus) has pits between the toruli; in both Palaeoneura and Polynema (Doriclytus) the propleura abut anteriorly.
Palaeoneura is keyed out twice because in the Nearctic it contains four species representing at least two morphologically dissimilar groups. One species, P. markhoddlei Triapitsyn, has each notaulus narrow (as in Figs 752, 760) and axillar seta long, extending almost to apex of frenum (as in Figs 752, 760), shown in the extralimital P. sophoniae Huber (Figs 750–773). Both species are classified in the kusnezovi group of what used to be Chaetomy- mar, currently treated as a synonym of Palaeoneura (Triapitsyn 2018). Another species, P. mymaripennis (Dozier) (Figs 774–798), has each notaulus wide (Figs 776, 784) and the axillar seta short (Figs 776, 784). The remaining two species are similar to one or, partly, the other of the above species. Until the genus is better defined on a world basis, with special attention to the diverse Australian fauna, it is premature to determine here whether the Nearctic species should be classified in more than one genus.
Nearctic hosts. Hemiptera: Cicadellidae.
Important references. Triapitsyn & Aquino (2010), Triapitsyn (2018b).
description: Published as part of Huber, John T., Read, Jennifer D. & Triapitsyn, Serguei V., 2020, Illustrated key to genera and catalogue of Mymaridae (Hymenoptera) in America north of Mexico, pp. 1-411 in Zootaxa 4773 (3) on pages 277-278, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4773.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3821373