A remarkable fossil berothoid larva (Neuroptera) from the late Eocene Rovno amber (Ukraine)

ABSTRACT

The larva of Berothidae or Rhachiberothidae (Neuroptera) is described from the late Eocene Rovno amber; it is the first record of either family from this amber. The larva is in particular characteristic with a four-segmented antenna, at least five stemmata, and lateral sutures on the head capsule connecting the coronal suture and lateral margins of the head. Based on these characters, the larva probably may belong to one of basal taxa of Berothidae, possibly to a suprageneric taxon which includes an undescribed small species from Baltic amber which is closely related to the mid-Cretaceous Haploberotha, or to Rhachiberothidae. This larva was most likely free living, possibly occurring under/on tree bark. In addition, the genus Protomenocria Emeljanov and Shcherbakov 2009 (Hemiptera: Achilidae) is recorded from Rovno amber for the first time.

KEYWORDS:

• Berothidae
• Rhachiberothidae
• Mantispidae
• Rovno amber
• late Eocene
• Protomenocria

Acknowledgments

We thank Alexander P. Rasnitsyn (Paleontological Institute, Moscow, Russia; PIN) and Valery M. Loktionov (Federal Scientific Center of the East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity, Vladivostok, Russia) for help with photography; Dmitry E. Shcherbakov and late Yuri A. Popov (both PIN) for determination of Hemiptera; late Gennady M. Dlussky (Moscow State University, Russia) for ant determination; James E. Jepson (University of Manchester, UK) for editing the English; and anonymous reviewers for providing valuable suggestions and comments to improve this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The research of VM were carried out within the state assignment of Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (theme No. 121031000151-3), those of EP were supported by Scholars at Risk Ukraine (SARU) fellowship at the University of Copenhagen, jointly funded by the Villum Foundation, Carlsberg Foundation and Novo Nordisk Foundation.