A new genus of Panguoidea in Lower Cretaceous Wealden amber

ABSTRACT

The panguid wasps are a ‘primitive’ family found only in the Cretaceous. Herein, a new species and genus, Protopangu valdensis gen. et sp. nov. assigned to the family Panguidae, is described and illustrated from Wealden amber, which represents one of the oldest-known fossiliferous ambers (early Barremian, ~125 Ma). A key to the genera and species of Panguidae is provided. The fossil wasp from the Wealden Group not only represents the oldest record of Panguoidea but also augments the geographic distribution of the taxon during the Cretaceous Period.

KEYWORDS:

• Cretaceous
• wasp
• Wealden amber
• Panguoidea
• taxonomy

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their instructive comments of the manuscript. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers. 42125201, 42293280) and the Science Foundation of Yunnan Province (grant numbers. 202301AS070049, 2015HA021). We also thank CAS PIFI for past support and this is a contribution to IGCP 679.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [42125201]; Science Foundation of Yunnan Province [2015HA021].