Wesmaelius (Kimninsia) nervosus (Fabricius, 1793) (Neuroptera, Hemerobiidae) a new species of brown lacewing for the Portuguese fauna

The family Hemerobiidae constitutes one of the most widespread and diverse families of europtera s.str. (= Planipennia), with about 600 species distributed worldwide (OSWALD, 1993). Despite their importance as pest-control agents (MACEWEN et al., 2001), knowledge on their distribution, phenology and morphological variation of adults and juveniles is very limited (MONSERRAT, 2015). In the Iberian Peninsula 40 species of brown lacewings are known, about two-thirds of all species present in Europe. Of these, 20 species occur in Portugal, belonging to 5 genera (MONSERRAT, 2015). Up until now, Wesmaelius (Kimminsia) subnebulosus (Stephens, 1836) was considered to be the only representative of its genus in mainland Portugal (LETARDI & ALMEIDA, 2013; MONSERRAT & TRIVIÑO, 2013; MONSERRAT, 2015). In this work, we report the finding of Wesmaelius (Kimninsia) nervosus (Fabricius, 1793) in Serra da Estrela mountain range. This species is known from Europe, Asia and North America (MONSERRAT, 2015). Although it has been frequently cited throughout Spain, more than three quarters of all recorded localities were deemed dubious or wrong by MONSERRAT (2015), stemming from confusion between W. (K.) nervosus and similar species such as Wesmaelius (Kimninsia) navasi (Andreu, 1911) or Wesmaelius (K.) subnebulosus, or misinterpretations of drawings and descriptions. As such, only records in the Eurosiberian region of Spain (MONSERRAT, 1986, 1991, 1994, 2010) are considered accurate (MONSERRAT, 2015).