Coniopterygidae (Neuroptera: Aleuropteryginae) in Amber from the Eocene of India and the Miocene of Hispaniola

The genus Spiloconis Enderlein is comprised of six Recent Asian and Pacific species, ranging from Sri Lanka (and possibly Madagascar) in the west to eastern Australia and Fiji in the east. Two species previously described in Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic, Spiloconis glaesaria Meinander and S. oediloma Engel and Grimaldi, are redescribed for some details. Spiloconis eominuta Grimaldi and Engel, new species, is described in earliest Eocene Cambay amber from Gujarat, India, which has well-preserved male terminalia. Neoconis paleocaribis Grimaldi and Engel, new species, is described from Dominican amber; this Recent genus is known from the southern United States and neotropics. The fossil Spiloconis may have significant biogeographic implications, but definitive determination of this requires a phylogenetic analysis of the 16 Recent genera in the monophyletic subfamily Aleuropteryginae. A Dominican amber-Australasian distribution pattern is known for 18 genera of insects in myriad orders (including Spiloconis), which are briefly reviewed.