The tiny creatures in question were lacewing larvae. Although adult lacewings have complex compound eyes, it was mostly known that these juvenile insects used simple eyes known as stemmata.

This occurred among the larvae of distant relatives of antlions—that is to say, lacewings. An expert in fossil insect larvae, Haug made this discovery together with her research team.

At least three instances of this have been found in modern insect larvae: in antlions, tiger beetles, and water tigers. "Lacewings and their larvae exhibited astonishing diversity during the ...