New Cretaceous Lacewings in a Transitional Lineage of Myrmeleontoidea and Their Phylogenetic Implications

Abstract

The extinct neuropteran families Cratosmylidae and Babinskaiidae hitherto only known from the Cretaceous represent the transitional lineage between Nymphidae and advanced myrmeleontoids (e.g., Nemopteridae and Myrmeleontidae) in the superfamily Myrmeleontoidea. Here, we describe two new species, which respectively belong to Cratosmylidae and Babinskaiidae, namely, Araripenymphes burmanus sp. nov. and Paradoxoleon chenruii gen. et sp. nov., from the mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber of Myanmar. Cratosmylidae, which was previously only recorded from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil (Crato Formation), is first reported from the mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber of Myanmar, and the co-occurrence of Araripenymphes Menon, Martins-Neto and Martill, 2005 across South America and Asia further documents the Gondwanan origin of the northern Myanmar amber lacewing paleofauna. The first finding of a deeply bifurcated forewing MP with two free branches in Babinskaiidae (viz., Paradoxoleon chenruii gen. et sp. nov.) highlights the morphological diversity of this extinct family. The phylogenetic positions of Araripenymphes burmanus sp. nov. and Paradoxoleon chenruii gen. et sp. nov. were recovered on the basis of a morphology-based phylogenetic analysis, and the monophyly of Cratosmylidae + Babinskaiidae was corroborated. Given the paraphyly of Cratosmylidae, its familial status is discussed.