New Species of Babinskaiidae (Insecta: Neuroptera) From the Mid‐Cretaceous of Myanmar and the Morphological Divergence of the Family Across the Cretaceous

Babinskaiidae is an extinct lacewing family, only known from the Cretaceous, of the superfamily Myrmeleontoidea, currently comprising 22 species in 16 genera. The family is primarily recorded from two Cretaceous deposits: the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil and the mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber of Myanmar. Shared morphology between the two localities points to a possible evolutionary or biogeographic link. Here, we describe two new species of Babinskaiidae from the mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber: Burmobabinskaia jiaxiaoae sp. nov. and Parababinskaia weijie sp. nov. The combined presence of female gonapophysis 8 and gonocoxites 8 is documented for the first time in Babinskaiidae based on a new female specimen of Burmobabinskaia. Despite the occurrence of a shared genus between two deposits, the degree of morphological disparity within Cretaceous Babinskaiidae—and the character traits responsible for this variation—has not been quantified. To address this, we compared the morphological disparity of Babinskaiidae from the Crato Formation and the Kachin amber. Our results reveal pronounced morphological divergence between the two localities, both in overall size and morphospace orientation, with little overlap. A correlation between body length and the primary PCoA axis further indicates that size-related traits may be key drivers of morphological variation within the family. The available niches in the Myanmar ecosystem may have accelerated adaptive evolution, propelling morphological divergence through ecological differentiation and lineage-specific adaptations.