Synopsis of the fossil Pristocerinae (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae), with description of two new genera and six species from Burmese, Taimyr, Baltic and Rovno ambers

ABSTRACT

The flat wasps Bethylidae are a cosmopolitan family of aculeate ectoparasitoid of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera larvae. There are only 73 fossil species so far. Here, we provide a synopsis of the fossil pristocerine, which are those with strongly sexual dimorphism. Comments for all earlier described species are given. Two new genera and two species from Burmese and Taimyr ambers are described and illustrated, †Ekaterina volgatitan Colombo, Gobbi and Azevedo gen. et sp. nov. and †Uniceratops trex Colombo, Gobbi and Azevedo gen. et sp. nov. Four new species from Baltic and Rovno ambers are described and illustrated, †Cleistepyris allosaurus Colombo, Gobbi and Azevedo sp. nov., †Cleistepyris baryonyx Colombo, Gobbi and Azevedo sp. nov., †Pseudisobrachium megalosaurus Colombo, Gobbi and Azevedo sp. nov., †Pseudisobrachium stegosaurus Colombo, Gobbi and Azevedo sp. nov. The species Eleganesia electriphila (Cockerell) is transferred to Foenobethylus and has to be considered Foenobethylus electriphilus (Cockerell) comb. nov. The species Pseudisobrachium oligocenicum Théobald must be excluded from Bethylidae and has to be considered as Hymenoptera incertae sedis. The genus Cleistepyris is recorded for the Old World in the first time. A key for fossil pristocerine is provided.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:03A13860-9AA3-4234-A3BE-5300ACC87BE5

KEYWORDS:

• Aculeata
• Chrysidoidea
• Cretaceous
• Eocene
• Miocene
• Oligocene
• Platygastridae
• Torymidae

Acknowledgments

The authors are sincerely grateful to Prof. Alexandr P. Rasnitsyn (PIN) for discussing the earlier version of manuscript and loan of material, Dr Dmitry S. Kopylov (PIN), the late Dr Ekaterina A. Sidorchuk (PIN) and Dr Dmitry D. Vorontsov (Institute of Developmental Biology, Moscow, Russia) for collecting the amber at Yantardakh; Vyacheslav V. Martynov (Slavyansk, Ukraine) for his help in searching for Taimyr amber inclusions; Anatoly P. Vlaskin (SIZK) and Ekaterina A. Sidorchuk for cutting and polishing the amber pieces, Prof. Zoya A. Fedotova (All-Russian Institute for Plant Protection, St. Petersburg – Pushkin, Russian), Prof. Ryszard Szadziewski (University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland), Prof. Dany Azar (Lebanese University, Fanar, Lebanon) for identifying the syninclusions. The Isabel Alencar for discussing and for helping to understand the genus Eleganesia. The Ifes (Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Espírito Santo) for license granted to the second author the postdoctoral internship. The Subject Editor, anonymous reviewers for the valuable comments.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

WDC was supported with a PhD. bursary of Demanda Social by CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior); COA was supported with a bursary by CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico), grant # 303748/2018-4.