Beaded lacewings (Neuroptera: Berothidae) in amber from the Lower Cretaceous of Spain

Abstract

Five new beaded lacewings (Neuroptera: Berothidae) are described from ca. 105 Ma Spanish amber. A new genus and species, Cantabroberotha soplaensis gen. et sp. nov., are erected based on a complete amber specimen from the El Soplao outcrop (Cantabria, northern Spain). Four indeterminate berothids based on incomplete specimens are described from Peñacerrada I amber (Burgos, northern Spain). One of these provides a rare instance of an amber fossil being partially preserved as an impression rather than as a complete inclusion. This was the result of the lacewing not fully penetrating into a resin flow, its wings getting caught on the resin surface and leaving an imprint. The preservation of this delicate impression fossil allows us to infer that a low grade transport likely occurred, at least partly, during the biostratinomic phase of the genesis of the Peñacerrada I amber deposit, similar to what was inferred for the El Soplao amber deposit. Moreover, one of the incomplete berothid inclusions has an indeterminate, likely immature mesostigmatan mite attached to the proximal part of its hind wing, most parsimoniously resulting from a symbiotic interaction, probably phoresy.