Abstract
Kujiberothateruyukiigen. et sp. n., a remarkable new genus and species of Rhachiberothidae, is described from Upper Cretaceous amber from the Kuji area in northeastern Japan. This discovery represents the first record of this family both from Japan and from East Asia. This fossil taxon has the largest foreleg in the subfamily Paraberothinae found to date and its discovery implies that this group had higher morphological diversity in the Cretaceous than it does now. This finding also stresses the importance of the insect inclusions in Kuji amber, which have not been well explored in spite of their potential abundance.
Highlights
Rhachiberothidae, or thorny lacewings, are a small family of Neuroptera, which have 13 extant species assigned to three genera as well as rather abundant fossil records and extinct taxa (Table 1): Hoelzeliella Aspöck & Aspöck, 1997, Mucroberotha Tjeder, 1959, and Rhachiberotha Tjeder, 1959 (Aspöck and Mansell 1994; Aspöck and Aspöck 1997 Makarkin and Kupryjanowicz 2010; Makarkin 2015a; Oswald 2018)
Kujiberotha gen. n. represents the first discovery of Rhachiberothidae from Japan and from East Asia, providing key insights into the past distribution and morphological diversity of thorny lacewings
Fossils of Rhachiberothidae have been reported from major amber deposits ranging from the Lower Cretaceous to the mid-Eocene, the localities of these fossil findings have previously been limited geographically (Table 1)
Summary
Rhachiberothidae, or thorny lacewings, are a small family of Neuroptera, which have 13 extant species assigned to three genera as well as rather abundant fossil records and extinct taxa (Table 1): Hoelzeliella Aspöck & Aspöck, 1997, Mucroberotha Tjeder, 1959, and Rhachiberotha Tjeder, 1959 (Aspöck and Mansell 1994; Aspöck and Aspöck 1997 Makarkin and Kupryjanowicz 2010; Makarkin 2015a; Oswald 2018). The subfamily is characterized with a combination of eleven morphological characters, e.g., small body size (forewing 2.9–4.2 mm long); antennal scapus long to very long; forelegs raptorial; at least two spines present on the inner edge of protibia (synapomorphy); ScP and RA fused distally in both fore- and hindwings; loss of the intermediate subcostal crossvein in the distal part of the forewing; CuP present in the hindwing (Nel et al 2005a; Makarkin and Kupryjanowicz 2010; Makarkin 2015a) This group is known from various Cretaceous amber deposits, namely Burmese, Canadian, French, Lebanese and New Jersey amber (Schlüter 1978; Whalley 1980; Grimaldi 2000; Engel 2004; Nel et al 2005a; Engel and Grimaldi 2008; McKellar and Engel 2009; Petrulevičius et al 2010; Shi et al 2015; Makarkin 2015a; Table 1).
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