Researchers Discover Fossil of Ancient Silky Lacewing Insect in China
Posted on October 7, 2011
A team of researchers from the Capital Normal University in Beijing and the Institute of Biology and Soil Sciences in Vladivostok discovered a fossil of a silky lacewing insect from the Mesozoic Era of China. The fossil is over 120 million years old.
Modern silky lacewings (Psychopsidae) can be recognized by their broad wing shape, dense venation, patterned and hairy wings. Today, silky lacewings are found in southern Africa, southeastern Asia and Australia, but in the Mesozoic, it was much more widely distributed.
Vladimir Makarkin, lead author of the study, says, "The most important trait of this fossil is that it shares the features of two different families of neuropteran insects, the extant Psychopsidae (known also from the Mesozoic) and the extinct Mesozoic Osmylopsychopidae."
Citiation: Peng Y, Makarkin V, Wang X, Ren D (2011) A new fossil silky lacewing genus (Neuroptera, Psychopsidae) from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China. ZooKeys 130: 217-228. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.130.1576