The beaded lacewings, Berothidae, are a family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 of winged insects

Pterygota

Pterygota is a subclass of insects that includes the winged insects. It also includes insect orders that are secondarily wingless ....

 of the order

Order (biology)

In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...

 Neuroptera

Neuroptera

The insect order Neuroptera, or net-winged insects, includes the lacewings, mantidflies, antlions, and their relatives. The order contains some 6,010 species...

. The family was first named by Anton Handlirsch

Anton Handlirsch

Anton Handlirsch, exactly Anton Peter Josef Handlirsch was an Austrian entomologist.His father was Peter Handlirsch , mother was Rosina Handlirsch . His father worked as a cook of the Schwarzenberg family...

 in 1906.

Berothidae is very closely related to the thorny lacewings which are often included in the Berothidae as subfamily "Rhachiberothinae" but occasionally are considered the distinct family Rhachiberothidae

Rhachiberothidae

The thorny lacewings, Rhachiberothidae, are a family of winged insects of the order Neuroptera.Long included in the Berothidae , they are usually considered a separate family by current authors...

 or included as a subfamily in the mantidflies. Mantidflies, family Mantispidae, are another group of rather close relatives, and at least some of the probably paraphyletic group of fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

 forms collectively called "Mesithonidae" also seem to be quite close. The family consists of 22 genera and 100 living species distributed discontinuously world wide with most being subtropical to tropical. Eleven extinct genera with a total of thirteen species have been described from the fossil record.

Systematics

The peculiar genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Lomamyia cannot be robustly assigned to any one subfamily. In addition, a considerable fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

 diversity of beaded lacewings is known from the Late Jurassic

Late Jurassic

The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 161.2 ± 4.0 to 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago , which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata. In European lithostratigraphy, the name "Malm" indicates rocks of Late Jurassic age...

 onwards, containing numerous genera which are likewise basal or incertae sedis

Incertae sedis

, is a term used to define a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Uncertainty at specific taxonomic levels is attributed by , , and similar terms.-Examples:*The fossil plant Paradinandra suecica could not be assigned to any...

:

• Oloberotha Ren & Guo, 1996 (Late Jurassic; China)

• Banoberotha
• Jersiberotha
• Nascimberotha
• Microberotha
  Microberotha
  Microberotha is an extinct monotypic genus of "beaded lacewing", family Berothidae; order Neuroptera with the single species Microberotha macculloughi...
  
  
• Plesiorobius - validity doubtful
• Proberotha