Taxonomic study of the Cretaceous lacewing family Babinskaiidae (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontoidea: Nymphidoidae), with description of new taxa

Taxonomic notes on Babinskaiidae from the Cretaceous Burmese amber, with the description of a new species (Insecta, Neuroptera)

“…However, the hind wing A2, possible with A3 merged, is present in P. makarkini sp. n. and E. burmana , indicating that the reduction of A2 and A3 may not be the autapomorphy of Babinskaiidae as proposed by Makarkin et al (2017).…”

“…Makarkin et al (2017) outlined four apomorphic wing characters to define Babinskaiidae, including the distal origin of RP+MA, the presence of presectorial cross veins in both wings, the single forewing MP, and the reduction of hind wing A2 and A3. The former three characters may be verified as the synapomorphies of Babinskaiidae although the distal origin of RP+MA and the presence of presectorial cross veins are also present in some lineages of Myrmeleontidae and Ascalaphidae.…”

“…These two venation terminologies differ from each other mainly in homology interpretation and definition of MA, i.e., whether MA is considered to be fused with RP at the wing base. The venation terminology used for Babinskaiidae in Makarkin et al (2017) is in generally similar to that of Breitkreuz et al (2017). Terminology of genitalia follows Aspöck and Aspöck (2008).…”

“…The extinct lacewing family Babinskaiidae, belongs to the superfamily Myrmeleontoidea, and is recently considered to form an epifamily Nymphidoidae together with Nymphidae (Makarkin et al 2017). Adults of Babinskaiidae can be characterised by long filiform antennae, narrowly elongated wings, with features such as trichosors, and presectorial cross veins present in both wings, and absence of forewing oblique vein (i.e., the base of MP2).…”

“…Hitherto, Babinskaiidae were only recorded in the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil (Crato Formation) and Russia (Zaza Formation), and the mid-Cretaceous of Myanmar (Martins-Neto and Vulcano 1989a, b; Ponomarenko 1992; Martins-Neto 1997; Lu et al 2017; Makarkin et al 2017). Currently, the family contains nine species assigned in seven genera, i.e., Baisonelia Ponomarenko, 1992 from the Lower Cretaceous of Russia; Babinskaia Martins-Neto & Vulcano, 1989, Neliana Martins-Neto, 1992, Parababinskaia Makarkin, Heads & Wedmann, 2017 from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil; and Burmobabinskaia Lu, Zhang & Liu, 2017, Electrobabinskaia Lu, Zhang & Liu, 2017, and Pseudobabinskaia Makarkin, Heads & Wedmann, 2017 from the mid-Cretaceous of Myanmar.…”