Rhachiberothidae, sometimes called thorny lacewings, are a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

winged insects Pterygota ( ) is a subclass of insects that includes all winged insects and groups who lost them secondarily. Pterygota group comprises 99.9% of all insects. The orders not included are the Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) and the Zygent ...

in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Neuroptera The insect order (biology), order Neuroptera, or net-winged insects, includes the lacewings, mantidflies, antlions, and their relatives. The order consists of some 6,000 species. Neuroptera is grouped together with the Megaloptera (alderflies, f ...

. The family has only 14 extant species in four genera found in

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

, but has a diverse fossil record extending back to the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

(then part of North

Gondwana Gondwana ( ; ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia (continent), Australia, Zea ...

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. Like the closely related

Mantispidae Mantispidae (), commonly known as mantidflies, mantispids, mantid lacewings, mantisflies or mantis-flies, is a family of small to moderate-sized insects in the order Neuroptera. There are many genera with around 400 species worldwide, especially ...

members of the group possess

raptorial In biology (specifically the anatomy of arthropods), the term ''raptorial'' implies much the same as ''predatory'' but most often refers to modifications of an arthropod leg, arthropod's foreleg that make it function for the grasping of prey whi ...

forelegs, which probably only evolved once in the common ancestor of the groups. Long included in the

Berothidae The Berothidae are a family of winged insects of the order Neuroptera. They are known commonly as the beaded lacewings. The family was first named by Anton Handlirsch in 1906. The family consists of 24 genera and 110 living species distributed di ...

(beaded lacewings), they are usually considered a separate family by current authors. Another closely related group are the mantidflies (

), and at least some of the probably

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

group of

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

forms collectively called " Mesithonidae" also seem to be quite close.

Taxonomy

*Rhachiberothidae Tjeder, 1959 ** † Paraberothinae Nel ''et al''., 2005 *** †'' Acanthoberotha'' Nakamine et al, 2020

Burmese amber Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. Th ...

, Late Cretaceous (

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy's (ICS) geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Cretace ...

) ***†'' Albertoberotha'' McKellar & Engel, 2009

Canadian amber Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

, Late Cretaceous (

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...

) *** †'' Alboberotha'' Nel ''et al''., 2005 Charentese amber, France, Cenomanian ***†'' Astioberotha'' Nakamine et al, 2020 Burmese amber, Cenomanian *** †'' Chimerhachiberotha'' Nel ''et al''., 2005

Lebanese amber Lebanese amber is fossilized resin found in Lebanon and its surroundings. It dates back approximately 130-125 million years to the Barremian of the Early Cretaceous. It formed on what was then the northern coast of Gondwana, believed to be a tropic ...

, Early Cretaceous (

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 125.77 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma (Historically, this stage was placed at 129.4 million to approximately 125 million years ago) It is a ...

) *** †'' Creagroparaberotha'' Makarkin, 2015 Burmese amber, Cenomanian *** †'' Eorhachiberotha'' Engel, 2004 Burmese amber, Cenomanian *** †'' Kujiberotha'' Nakamine & Yamamoto, 2018 Kuji amber, Japan, Late Cretaceous (

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya ( million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 m ...

) *** †'' Micromantispa'' Shi ''et al''., 2015 Burmese amber, Cenomanian *** †'' Paraberotha'' Whalley, 1980 Lebanese amber, Barremian *** †'' Raptorapax'' Petrulevicius ''et al''., 2010 Lebanese amber, Barremian *** †'' Retinoberotha'' Schlüter, 1978 Bezonnais amber, France, Cenomanian *** †'' Rhachibermissa'' Grimaldi, 2000

New Jersey amber New Jersey Amber, sometimes called Raritan amber, is amber found in the Raritan Formation, Raritan and Magothy Formations of the Mid-Atlantic states, Central Atlantic (Eastern) coast of the United States. It is dated to the Late Cretaceous, Turoni ...

, Late Cretaceous (

Turonian The Turonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS' geologic timescale, the second age (geology), age in the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch, or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Upper Cretaceous series (stratigraphy), ...

) *** †'' Scoloberotha'' Engel & Grimaldi, 2008 Burmese amber, Cenomanian *** †'' Spinoberotha'' Nel ''et al''., 2005 Lebanese amber, Barremian ***†'' Stygioberotha'' Nakamine et al, 2020 Burmese amber, Cenomanian ***†'' Uranoberotha'' Nakamine et al, 2020 Burmese amber, Cenomanian ** Rhachiberothinae Tjeder, 1959 *** '' Hoelzeliella'' Aspöck & Aspöck, 1997 *** '' Mucroberotha'' Tjeder, 1959 *** '' Rhachiberotha'' Tjeder, 1959 *** '' Rhachiella'' Aspöck, Aspöck, Johnson, Donga & Duelli, 2020 *** †'' Whalfera'' Engel, 2004

Baltic amber Baltic amber or succinite is amber from the Baltic region, home of its largest known deposits. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that this forested region provided the re ...

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

**''Incertae sedis'' *** †'' Oisea'' Nel ''et al''., 2005

Oise amber Oise amber () is a type of amber found near the Oise river near Creil in northern France. Oise amber is around 53 million years old, dating to the Early Eocene (Ypresian). Oise amber is softer than Baltic amber, although Oise amber is older ...

, France, Eocene (

Ypresian In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age (geology), age or lowest stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by th ...

) *** †'' Paradoxoberotha'' Nakamine et al. 2022 Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cenomanian

References

Mantispoidea Neuroptera Neuroptera families {{Neuroptera-stub