Phylogeny of pleasing lacewings (Neuroptera: Dilaridae) with a revised generic classification and description of a new subfamily

Abstract

The phylogeny of pleasing lacewings (Neuroptera: Dilaridae) is reconstructed for the first time based on morphological data using all fossil and extant genera. Accordingly, a revised generic classification of Dilaridae is proposed, with a new subfamily (i.e. Berothellinae subfam.n.) erected based on its remarkably different morphological features from the other dilarid subfamilies.

New records of pleasing lacewings (Neuroptera, Dilaridae) from São Paulo state, Brazil

“…The Dilaridae have a disjunct distribution, with occurrence records in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, but they are absent in the Australian region (Oswald 1998, Liu et al 2017. Of the Nallachinae, Nallachius Navás, 1909 occurs in the Nearctic and Neotropical regions while Neonallachius Nakahara, 1963 is an African and Asian genus (Liu et al 2017).…”

“…The Dilaridae (Neuroptera) comprise 2 extinct and 4 extant genera with near 100 species distributed in 3 subfamilies, Berothellinae, Dilarinae and Nallachinae (Aspöck et al 2015, Zhang et al 2016, Liu et al 2017. Due in part to their rarity, the biology of this family is poorly documented (Penny 1981, Bowles et al 2015, Liu et al 2017), but the larvae are known live in decayed wood and under barks of dead trees (MacLeod and Spiegler 1961, Penny 1981, Oswald 1998.…”

“…The genus Nallachius comprises 20 described species, of which 10 are known from 12 states of Brazil (Oswald 1998, Monserrat 2005, Machado and Rafael 2010, Martins and Araújo 2016, Liu et al 2017. Only N. limai Adams, 1970 is recorded from São Paulo state, Brazil (Martins and Amorim 2015).…”

“…Of the Nallachinae, Nallachius Navás, 1909 occurs in the Nearctic and Neotropical regions while Neonallachius Nakahara, 1963 is an African and Asian genus (Liu et al 2017).…”

“…Due in part to their rarity, the biology of this family is poorly documented (Penny 1981, Bowles et al 2015, Liu et al 2017), but the larvae are known live in decayed wood and under barks of dead trees (MacLeod and Spiegler 1961, Penny 1981, Oswald 1998.…”