Many representatives of Neuropteriformia, especially of Neuroptera and Coleoptera, also seem to have a huge disparity between the adults and larvae, as well as an exceedingly high diversity of the larval forms ( Badano et al., 2018 Haug, Müller & Haug, 2019). The range of morphological diversity varies from the larvae of Megaloptera where both adults and larvae have fully functional jointed legs and quite similar mouth parts, to larvae of the dipteran ingroup Cyclorrhapha, where headless and legless larvae (maggots) are in strong contrast to nimble winged and large-eyed adults (flies) ( Engel, 2018). Larvae and adults of Holometabola are remarkably diverse in their morphology ( Engel, 2018). This success has been attributed to numerous different factors-two will be considered with some more detail here: (1) the very diverse modifications of their feeding apparatus ( Grimaldi & Engel, 2005 Engel, 2018) and (2) the differentiation of the resources exploited by larval and adult representatives of Holometabola ( Grimaldi & Engel, 2005), a major and especially species-rich ingroup of Insecta (including beetles, wasps, butterflies and so on Grimaldi & Engel, 2005). The myriad representatives of Insecta (Hexapoda in Anglo-American tradition) are very successful in evolutionary terms concerning species richness, biomass, number of individuals, number of ecological roles or whatever measure we suggest. The here reported larva is a new addition to the ‘unusual zoo’ of the Cretaceous fauna including numerous, very unusual appearing forms that have gone extinct at the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary. We discuss this unusual combination of characters in comparison to the many different types of holometabolan larvae. Also, the abdomen segments bear prominent protrusions. Additionally, the larva has distinct subdivisions of tergites and sternites into several sclerites.

The mouth parts of the new fossil are forward oriented (prognathous). Such a morphology is extremely rare among larval forms, restricted to those of some beetles and lacewings. Its mouth parts appear beak-like, forming a distinct piercing mouth cone. Here we report a new unusual larva preserved in Burmese amber. The larvae most often seem to retain rather plesiomorphic-appearing cutting-grinding mouth parts. Adult forms of Holometabola, such as wasps, bees, beetles, butterflies, mosquitoes or flies, are strongly differentiated concerning their mouth parts. Holometabola is a hyperdiverse group characterised by a strong morphological differentiation between early post-embryonic stages (= larvae) and adults.

Asian name pronounced tincta