Taxonomy on a new fossil mantis fly from the Sinuiju Biota

 2022.11.3.

Chairman Kim Jong Il said:

"By developing our science and technology to world standards as soon as possible, the intellectuals should make a great contribution to increasing production rapidly and developing the economy."

Recently, we recovered a well-preserved Sinuijumantispa ryonsangiensis gen. et sp. nov. belonging to Mantispidae from the third member of the Lower Cretaceous (Barremian-Aptian) Sinuiju Formation at Ryonsang-dong, Sinuiju City, North Phyongan Province, DPRK, and it's taxonomy is as follows.

SYSTEMATIC PALAEONTOLOGY

Class: INSECTA Linnaeus, 1758

Order: NEUROPTERA Linnaeus, 1758

Family: MANTISPIDAE Leach, 1815

Subfamily: (?) DREPANICINAE Enderlein, 1910

Genus: SINUIJUMANTISPA gen. nov.

Type species. Sinuijumantispa ryonsangiensis sp. nov.

Derivation of name. Refers to the Sinuiju City and Mantispa, type genus of the family.

Diagnosis. Body small; trichosors around entire wing margins; femur with one major, sub-basal spine largest, two spines larger than remaining (short) spines along the ventral face; Sc meets R1 in region of pterostigma; costal space most dilated at one quarter wing length; Sc and R1 parallel for most of length; costal space of hind wing gradually narrow towards wing base, with simple and straight veinlets.

Sinuijumantispa ryonsangiensis sp. nov.
Fig. 1 Sinuijumantispa ryonsangiensis sp. nov. from the third member of the Sinuiju Formation

Type locality and horizon. Ryonsang-dong, Sinuiju City, North Phyongan Province, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK); the third member, the Sinuiju Formation, Barremian–Aptian, Lower Cretaceous.

Derivation of name. Refers to the type locality Ryonsang-dong.

Diagnosis. As for the genus

Additionally our specimen differs from representatives of the subfamily Mesomantispinae at least in having a conspicuous major spine on profemur and Sc and RA fused distally. And it can't be placed in subfamily Doratomantispinae since it possesses trichosors along the entire wing margin and a different configuration of spines on profemur. Affinities with the Mantispinae and the Calomantispinae are excluded because of the complexe wing venation with numerous Rs veins, C not meating Sc.

We are confident of the placement of this genus in stem-Drepanicinae,

Sinuijumantispa ryonsangiensis gen. et sp. nov. is the first representative of the Mantispidae in DPRK. No fossil mantis fly has been reported from the Jehol Biota. This discovery increases the diversity of Mantispidae and gives a chance for a further study.

We published this result in the journal "Cretaceous Research" (2020) under the title of "A new fossil mantis fly (Insecta: Neuroptera: Mantispidae) from the Lower Cretaceous of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea" (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2020.08.006).