A new species of brown lacewing (Neuroptera: Hemerobiidae) from Eocene Baltic amber

摘要

A new species of brown lacewing (Insecta: Neuroptera: Hemerobiidae) is described from Eocene Baltic amber. Sympherobius siriae sp. nov. is the second fossil species of the genus so far described. The other, Sympherobius completus Makarkin et Wedmann is also from Baltic amber. The fossil record of Hemerobiidae is reviewed. Hemerobiidae is a widely distributed neuropteran family found on all continents except Antarctica (Oswald 1993). There are 550 extant hemerobiids described (Oswald 1993). Extant hemerobiids, both larvae and adults, inhabit emergent terrestrial vegetation where their prey is found (Oswald 1993). The fossil record of Hemerobiidae is very sparse in the Mesozoic with some material in need of re-examination; however they are much more common in the Tertiary (Oswald 1993; Makarkin et al. 2003). The first known fossil representative of Hemerobiidae {Promegalomus anomalus Panfilov, 1980) is from the Jurassic of Karatau, Kazakhstan (Panfilov 1980), with fossils known from the Cretaceous and all major Tertiary localities (Oswald 1993; Makarkin et al. 2003; Engel & Grimaldi 2007). In Baltic amber, there have been four species of hemerobiid described (Table 1), and also undescribed taxa have been found probably representing new species (seeMakarkin & Wedmann 2009).