BackgroundIn this contribution we present detailed distribution and abundance data for arthropod species identified during the BALA – Biodiversity of Arthropods from the Laurisilva of the Azores (1999-2004) and BALA2 projects (2010-2011) from 18 native forest fragments in seven of the nine Azorean islands (all excluding Graciosa and Corvo islands, which have no native forest left).New informationOf the total 286 species identified, 81% were captured between 1999 and 2000, a period during which only 39% of all the samples were collected. On average, arthropod richness for each island increased by 10% during the time frame of these projects. The classes Arachnida, Chilopoda and Diplopoda represent the most remarkable cases of new island records, with more than 30% of the records being novelties. This study stresses the need to expand the approaches applied in these projects to other habitats in the Azores, and more importantly to other less surveyed taxonomic groups (e.g. Diptera and Hymenoptera). These steps are fundamental for getting a more accurate assessment of biodiversity in the archipelago.

Neuroptera, the group of lacewings, comprises only about 6000 species in the modern fauna, but is generally assumed to have been more diverse and important in the past. A major factor of the modern-day ecological diversity of the group, and supposedly in the past as well, is represented by the highly specialised larval forms of lacewings. Quantitative analyses of the morphology of larvae revealed a loss of morphological diversity in several lineages. Here we explored the diversity of the larvae of mantis lacewings (Mantispidae), lance lacewings (Osmylidae), beaded lacewings (Berothidae and Rhachiberothidae, the latter potentially an ingroup of Berothidae), and pleasing lacewings (Dilaridae), as well as fossil larvae, preserved in amber, resembling these. We used shape analysis of the head capsule and stylets (pair of conjoined jaws) as a basis due to the high availability of this body region in extant and fossil specimens and the ecological importance of this region. The analysis revealed a rather constant morphological diversity in Berothidae. Mantispidae appears to have lost certain forms of larvae, but has seen a drastic increase of larval diversity after the Cretaceous; this is in contrast to a significant decrease in diversity in adult forms.

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Neuroptera is one of the smaller ingroups of Holometabola, the ingroup of Insecta characterised by "complete" metamorphosis. Neuroptera comprises about 6000 species in the modern fauna, but appears to have been more diverse in the past. While adults distantly resemble certain moths or damselflies, the larval forms of Neuroptera are mostly fierce predators with prominent venom-injecting stylets. The most well-known of these larvae are probably those of antlions. Antlions and their closer relatives (silky lacewings, split-footed lacewings, ribbon-winged lacewings, spoon-winged lacewings, and owlflies) form a distinct monophyletic ingroup of Neuroptera, Myrmeleontiformia, hence the antlion-like forms. The fossil record of antlion-like larvae dates back far into the Cretaceous; many forms are known by exceptionally wellpreserved specimens entrapped in amber. The oldest fossil record of a neuropteran larva (not an antlion-like form) comes from Lebanese amber. Interestingly, the supposedly oldest record of an antlion-like larva is preserved in rock and comes from the famous Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation. We re-evaluate this fossil based on high-resolution composite photography. Due to the non-availability of many key characters, standard procedures for identifying the specimen to a more narrow ingroup remains challenging. Therefore, we used a morphometric approach. A combination of non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), parallel coordinate plots and discriminant function analysis indicates that the fossil is a representative of the group Ascalaphidae (owlflies) + Myrmeleontidae (antlions). We discuss implications of this result for the fossil record of neuropteran larvae. These include the rather derived morphology of the oldest fossil larva of Myrmeleontiformia in contrast to previous expectations. Furthermore, fossils from soil dwellers can not only be expected to be found in amber, but also as compression fossils.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (for details please see creativecommons.org), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Full text (1,238.8 kB) | Supplementary file (122.9 kB) Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Aphidlions are larvae of certain lacewings (Neuroptera), and more precisely larvae of the groups Chrysopidae, green lacewings, and Hemerobiidae, brown lacewings. The name ‘aphidlion’ originates from their ecological function as specialised predators of aphids. Accordingly, they also play an economic role as biological pest control. Aphidlions have, mostly, elongated spindle-shaped bodies, and similarly to most lacewing larvae they are equipped with a pair of venom-injecting stylets. Fossils interpreted as aphidlions are known to be preserved in amber from the Cretaceous (130 and 100 million years ago), the Eocene (about 35 million years ago) and the Miocene (about 15 million years ago) ages. In this study, new aphidlion-like larvae are reported from Cretaceous amber from Myanmar (about 100 million years old) and Eocene Baltic amber. The shapes of head and stylets were compared between the different time slices. With the newly described fossils and specimens from the literature, a total of 361 specimens could be included in the analysis: 70 specimens from the Cretaceous, 5 from the Eocene, 3 from the Miocene, 188 extant larvae of Chrysopidae, and 95 extant larvae of Hemerobiidae. The results indicate that the diversity of head shapes remains largely unchanged over time, yet there is a certain increase in the diversity of head shapes in the larvae of Hemerobiidae. In certain other groups of Neuroptera, a distinct decrease in the diversity of head shapes in larval stages was observed.