Cretaceous diversity and disparity in a lacewing lineage of predators (Neuroptera: Mantispidae)

Abstract

Mantidflies (Mantispidae) are an unusual and charismatic group of predatory lacewings (Neuroptera), whereby the adults represent a remarkable case of morphological and functional convergence with praying mantises (Mantodea). The evolutionary history of mantidflies remains largely unknown due to a scarcity of fossils. Here, we report the discovery of a highly diverse palaeofauna of mantidflies from the mid-Cretaceous (lowermost Cenomanian) of Myanmar. The raptorial forelegs of these mantidflies possess highly divergent morphological modifications, some of which are unknown among modern mantidflies, e.g. the presence of forked basal profemoral spines or even the complete loss of foreleg spine-like structures. A phylogenetic analysis of Mantispidae reveals a pattern of raptorial foreleg evolution across the family. The high species diversity and disparate foreleg characters might have been driven by diverse niches of predator–prey interplay in the complex tropical forest ecosystem of the mid-Cretaceous.

Changes in the Morphological Diversity of Larvae of Lance Lacewings, Mantis Lacewings and Their Closer Relatives over 100 Million Years

“…Adult forms of Mantispidae are well known from Cretaceous ambers [163][164][165][166][167]. These fossils are apparently representatives of early diverging branches of Mantispidae [165,166].…”

“…Adult forms of Mantispidae are well known from Cretaceous ambers [163][164][165][166][167]. These fossils are apparently representatives of early diverging branches of Mantispidae [165,166]. Hence, Mantispidae seems to have undergone an early diversification already in the Cretaceous.…”

A remarkable new thorny lacewing from mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar (Neuroptera: Rhachiberothidae)

“…In Mantispoidea, some taxa have a recurrent humeral vein (Table 1). In Mantispidae, most species of the extinct subfamily Mesomantispinae from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous [e.g., Archaeodrepanicus nuddsi Jepson et al 2013; Karataumantispa monstruosa (Khramov, 2013)] and some species of Symphrasinae [e.g., Plega spp., Archaeosymphrasis pennyi Shi et al 2020, Habrosymphrasis xiai Shi et al 2020, Haplosymphrasites zouae Lu et al 2020, and Parasymphrasites electrinus Lu et al 2020] have a trifurcate or multiply branched recurrent vein (more than three branches), while the remaining fossil and extant mantidflies possess only a bifurcate recurrent humeral vein or simple humeral vein (Lambkin 1986a, b;Ardila-Camacho and García 2015;Ardila-Camacho et al 2019;Liu et al 2015;Lu et al 2020;Shi et al 2020). In Dipteromantispidae, the humeral vein of almost all species is simple, except that of Paradipteromantispa polyneura , which has a bifurcate recurrent humeral vein (Liu et al 2017;.…”

“…These families, together with the extinct Triassic family Mesoberothidae (Riek 1955;Carpenter 1991) and Cretaceous family Dipteromantispidae (Makarkin et al 2013;, constitute the superfamily Mantispoidea (Engel et al 2018;Winterton et al 2018). Considering the elusive relationships among the mantispoid families/subfamilies, especially when including the fossil lineages (Liu et al 2015;Winterton et al 2018;Lu et al 2020;Shi et al 2020), we advocate not to make great taxonomic changes until a robust phylogenetic framework of Mantispoidea is constracted. Thus, in this paper, we do not follow the rhachiberothid affinity of Symphrasinae.…”

“…In Neuroptera, the morphological structures of the genital segments in both males and females are very important characters for investigating taxonomy and phylogeny (e.g., Aspöck and Aspöck 2008). Morphological studies compared the genital morphology of extant lineages Berothidae and Mantispidae (e.g., Aspöck and Nemeschkal 1998;Aspöck and Randolf 2014;Liu et al 2015;Ardila-Camacho et al 2021), and data on the genital characters of their extinct lineages and Dipteromantispidae are also increasing (Huang et al 2019;Yang et al 2020;Lu et al 2020;Liu et al 2017;. For Rhachiberothidae, however, other than the description of the genitalia of modern species, there are only a few studies on Paraberothinae, particularly on its genital morphology (Nel et al 2005a;McKellar and Engel 2009;Petrulevičius et al 2010;Shi et al 2015;Nakamine et al 2020).…”