ABSTRACT
The chrysidoid wasps are one of the main groups of aculeate parasitoid hymenopterans. Many of its constituent families are relatively well represented in the fossil record, being quite common in many Cenozoic amber deposits worldwide. Conversely, these wasps are scarcely represented in the Cretaceous period. Herein, we describe and illustrate three new genera and five new species from Cenomanian Burmese amber: †Aureobythus decoloratus gen. nov. et sp. nov., †A. punctatus sp. nov., and †A. villosus sp. nov., †Bethylochrysis clypeata gen. nov. et sp. nov., and †Chrysobythus areolatus gen. nov. et sp. nov. The new fossil taxa have a singular body morphology, especially concerning the forewing venation pattern, which does not fit in any of the known chrysidoid lineages. We therefore propose †Chrysobythidae fam. nov. to include these extinct inconspicuous lineages. Phylogenetic affinities with Chrysididae are discussed, based on the interpretations of the main characters of external morphology.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:281EEBDC-3D5F-4BE8-8417-D11F433EE071
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Denis Brothers for his careful review of the manuscript and for his constructive suggestions that helped improve our work; we also thank André Martins for help in compiling some of the information shown in .
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.