First soldier fly from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (Diptera, Stratiomyidae)

Stratiomyidae, or soldier flies, are a relatively primitive and diverse group of Brachycera, but definitive stratiomyids from the Mesozoic are rare. Here we describe the first soldier fly, Lysistrata burmensis sp. nov., in the mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar. The new species mostly resembles Lysistrata emerita Grimaldi and Arillo from the upper Lower Cretaceous Spanish amber and Montsecia martinezdelclosi Mostovski from the Lower Cretaceous Montsec Formation of Spain based on the general characters of venation, antennae and cerci. The new form displays an unusual feature (tibial spurs formula 0-1-0) that is confined exclusively to the modern genus Allognosta Meigen.