# Cretaceous lacewing larvae with binocular vision demonstrate the convergent evolution of sophisticated simple eyes

## TL;DR

Fossil lacewing larvae from 100 million years ago had large, sophisticated simple eyes that provided stereoscopic vision, showing convergent evolution in ancient insects.

## Contribution

Discovery of Cretaceous lacewing larvae with large stemmata and stereoscopic vision, indicating convergent evolution of advanced simple eyes.

## Key findings

- Three Cretaceous lacewing larvae had large forward-directed stemmata comparable to modern image-forming simple eyes.
- One larva had a uniquely wide head morphology not previously known in lacewing fossils.
- The stemmata arrangement suggests stereoscopic vision in these ancient predatory larvae.

## Abstract

Many insects and their relatives are renowned for sophisticated compound eyes, which are also preserved in the fossil record. Yet there are other types of eyes, notably the so‐called stemmata of holometabolans, such as beetles, bees, and butterflies. Stemmata are not as effective as compound eyes, except in some predatory larvae. Here we report three lacewing larvae with large forward‐directed stemmata from Cretaceous Kachin amber, Myanmar. The stemmata are large relative to those of other fossil lacewing larvae, comparable to the simple eyes of modern larvae capable of image formation. The head is very wide in one larva, representing a new type of morphology as demonstrated by a quantitative comparison of the head and stylets of over 400 fossil and extant lacewing larvae. The arrangement of the exceptionally large stemmata of the larvae reported here provides stereoscopic vision. These new specimens demonstrate the convergent evolution of highly developed simple eyes in at least two additional lineages of lacewings, showcasing the enormous diversity of lacewing larvae in the Cretaceous.

We report three ca. 100 million‐year‐old lacewing larvae with extraordinarily large stemmata. One of them additionally has a very wide head, which represents a previously unknown morphology. The arrangement of the stemmata indicates stereoscopic vision in these predatory larvae.