New genera records of split-eyed owlflies (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae: Ascalaphinae) from Colombia

Jorge Ari Noriega,Fernando Acevedo-Ramos,Adrian Ardila-Camacho

doi:10.11606/1807-0205/2019.59.51

Jorge Ari Noriega, Fernando Acevedo-Ramos + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.11606/1807-0205/2019.59.51

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Abstract

The genera Ameropterus Esben-Petersen, 1922 and Fillus Navás, 1919 are recorded from Colombia for the first time. New distributional records for two Cordulecerus Rambur, 1842 species are also presented. Ameropterus dissimilis (McLachlan, 1871) and Ameropterus scutellaris (Gerstaecker, 1894) are redescribed and illustrated, and Ameropterus mexicanus (Van der Weele, 1909) is here proposed as a junior synonym of the latter. The taxonomic status of Nephelasca crocea Navás, 1914 is discussed. Keys to the Colombian species of Ameropterus and Cordulecerus and a list of the split-eyed Ascalaphinae species of the New World are also given.

Highlights

The neuropteran families Ascalaphidae and Myrmeleontidae has been traditionally treated as closely related separated groups, and only recently were synonymized (Machado et al, 2019)
In recent studies Ascalaphidae was repeatedly recovered as paraphyletic (Winterton et al, 2010; Wang et al, 2017), and in a phylogenomic study of the Neuropterida, the group appeared forming two clades embedded within the Myrmeleontidae (Winterton et al, 2018)
To Colombia C. praecellens and C. subiratus were known (Ardila-Camacho & García-García, 2012), we reported the occurrence of C. surinamensis for the first time in the country

Summary

Introduction

The neuropteran families Ascalaphidae and Myrmeleontidae has been traditionally treated as closely related separated groups, and only recently were synonymized (Machado et al, 2019). In recent studies Ascalaphidae was repeatedly recovered as paraphyletic (Winterton et al, 2010; Wang et al, 2017), and in a phylogenomic study of the Neuropterida, the group appeared forming two clades embedded within the Myrmeleontidae (Winterton et al, 2018). A new classification of Myrmeleontidae where Ascalaphidae is treated as a subfamily was proposed.

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