Article: Stem‐group fossils of Symphrasinae shed light on early evolution of Mantispidae (Insecta, Neuroptera)

Two new mantid lacewing genera and species, Archaeosymphrasis pennyi gen. et sp. nov. and Habrosymphrasis xiai gen. et sp. nov., are described from mid‐Cretaceous Myanmar amber. Phylogenetic analysis recovered the new genera as stem‐group Symphrasinae, sister to the rest of the subfamily. These represent the oldest fossil record of the subfamily Symphrasinae (Neuroptera, Mantispidae) and illuminate the evolutionary history of Symphrasinae, as well as providing insights into the group's historical biogeography. They also provide new evidence for divergence time estimates of extant mantispid subfamilies.

We are grateful to Dr Ivonne J. Garzón‐Orduña for advices on parsimony phylogenetic analysis, and Dr Michael Ohl for providing of extant species images for this study. Our thanks go to Sally Thomas and two anonymous referees for helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 31501881, 31711530649, 41602014, 31730087), Basal Research Fund of Sun Yat‐sen University (grant no. 17lgzd04), Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (grant no. IRT‐17R75), Support Project of High‐level Teachers in Beijing Municipal Universities (IDHT20180518), and The Basic Work Special Project of the National Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2013FY111500).