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

Thorny lacewings (Rhachiberothidae) are a small group of Neuroptera, and currently distributed only within sub-Saharan Africa. They are relatively abundant in the fossil record of various Cretaceous ambers across the Northern Hemisphere, but all the Cretaceous rhachiberothids belong to the extinct subfamily Paraberothinae. Here, a new thorny lacewing, Paradoxoberotha chimaera gen. et sp. nov., is described from the mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber of northern Myanmar. This new genus is characterized by absence of spine or spine-like setae on ventral edge of protibia, well-developed recurrent humeral vein in the forewing, and well-developed hypocauda and pseudohypocauda in female genital segments. The peculiar combination of the morphological characters found in Paradoxoberotha gen. nov. cannot allow the definitive subfamilial placement within the currently recognized two subfamilies of Rhachiberothidae. This new species enhances knowledge on the morphological and species diversity of the Rhachiberothidae in the Cretaceous.