Taxonomic study of the Cretaceous lacewing family Babinskaiidae (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontoidea: Nymphidoidae), with description of new taxa

The Cretaceous lacewing family Babinskaiidae comprises nine species in seven genera, of which two new genera and one new species are described herein: Parababinskaia elegans gen. et sp. nov. from the late Aptian Crato Formation of Brazil, and Pseudobabinskaia gen. nov. (with the only species Pseudobabinskaia martinsnetoi Lu et al., 2017, comb. nov.) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. The reduction of the veins AA2 and AA3 in the hind wing is an autapomorphy of the family. Babinskaiidae are most closely related to Nymphidae, and have probably evolved as a side branch of these. The superfamily Myrmeleontoidea is divided into two epifamilies: Nymphidoidae whose MP (or M) is long, not fused with CuA, and trichosors are present (Nymphidae, Babinskaiidae), and Myrmeleontoidae whose MP is crossvein-like, then fused with CuA, and trichosors are lost (Araripeneuridae, Ascalaphidae, Myrmeleontidae, Nemopteridae, Palaeoleontidae). The aligned crossveins 1r-m and 1m-cu in the forewing is probably the only venational autapomorphy of the Myrmeleontoidea.