The first araripeneurine antlion in Burmese amber (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae)

Burmaneura minuta gen. et sp. nov., the first araripeneurine antlion in amber, is characterized, described and compared with the modern and Mesozoic Myrmeleontidae. The precise position of the fossil within this group is debatable. Interestingly, despite a rather rich fossil record, all Mesozoic Myrmeleontidae belong to subfamilies that are not recorded in the Cenozoic, although this might merely reflect the artificiality of the classification as the extinct groups may be paraphyletic with respect to their younger counterparts (e.g., Araripeneurinae may very well be nothing more than a stem group of no classificatory value).