New data on some brown lacewing species (Insecta, Neuroptera, Hemerobiidae)

Abstract

New data on the distribution, biology, phaenology, wing or genital morphology, variability, nomenclature and/or taxonomy of 67 brown-lacewings species from Palaearctic, Nearctic, Holarctic, Afrotropical, Oriental, Australian and Neotropical Faunas are given. New data about some species not recorded since the original description are given, and the previously known geographical distribution of some species is significantly enlarged. New data on the wing pigmentation and morphology of Hemerobius cercodes Navás, 1917, Sympherobius distinctus Carpenter, 1940, S. similis Carpenter, 1940 and S. limbus Carpenter, 1940 are given, and data on the external male genitalia of Sympherobius limbus Carpenter, 1940, S. similis Carpenter, 1940, S. arizonicus Banks, 1911, S. perparvus (McLachlan, 1869), S. occidentalis (Fitch, 1855) and S. angustus (Banks, 1904) are figured. Neotypes for Sympherobius pupillus Navás, 1915 and for Hemerobius cercodes Navás, 1917 are proposed, and two new synonymies: Sympherobius angustus (Banks, 1904) = S. pupillus Navás, 1915 n. sin. and Hemerobius cercodes Navás, 1917 = H. subacutus (Nakahara, 1966) n. sin. are proposed. On the basis of the high variability and overlapping found in several external and genital characters that define some Nearctic species / populations of the Sympherobius angustus (Banks, 1904) species group, some species of this species group are questionable. A new species, Notiobiella jaimei n. sp. is described from Vietnam.