title: New transitional fossil snakeflies from China illuminate the early evolution of Raphidioptera.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Raphidioptera (snakeflies) is a holometabolous order of the superorder Neuropterida characterized by the narrowly elongate adult prothorax and the long female ovipositor. Mesozoic snakeflies were markedly more diverse than the modern ones are. However, the evolutionary history of Raphidioptera is largely unexplored, as a result of the poorly studied phylogeny among fossil and extant lineages within the order.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this paper, we report a new snakefly family, Juroraphidiidae fam. nov., based on exquisitely preserved fossils, attributed to a new species Juroraphidia longicollumgen. et sp. nov., from the Jiulongshan Formation (Middle Jurassic) in Inner Mongolia, China. The new family is characterized by an unexpected combination of plesiomorphic and apomorphic characters of Raphidioptera. Based on our phylogenetic analysis, Juroraphidiidae fam. nov. together with Raphidiomorpha form a monophyletic clade, which is the sister to Priscaenigmatomorpha. The snakefly affinity of Priscaenigmatomorpha is confirmed and another new family, Chrysoraphidiidae fam. nov., is erected in this suborder.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Juroraphidiidae fam. nov. is determined to be a transitional lineage between Priscaenigmatomorpha and Raphidiomorpha. Diversification of higher snakefly taxa had occurred by the Early Jurassic, suggesting that these insects had already had a long but undocumented history by this time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China. xingyue_liu@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Xingyue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Ding
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D005580:Fossils; D007313:Insecta / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny
references.citation: Zookeys. 2013 Dec 04;(358):45-67
references.pmid: 24363584
references.citation: Cladistics. 1993 Mar;9(1):83-91
references.pmid: 34929936
references.citation: PLoS One. 2012;7(7):e40345
references.pmid: 22792287
references.citation: Zookeys. 2012;(204):1-40
references.pmid: 22787417
references.citation: PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e47302
references.pmid: 23056623
references.citation: Science. 1998 Apr 3;280(5360):85-8
references.pmid: 9525862
references.citation: Science. 2009 Nov 6;326(5954):840-7
references.pmid: 19892981