Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 1 No. 2: May–June 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-06-24
DOI: 10.11646/mesozoic.1.2.5
Page range: 132–138
Abstract views: 120
PDF downloaded: 63

A new species of the family Praeaulacidae (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea) from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber

State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), MNHN, CNRS, SU, EPHE-PSL, UA, CP50, 57 rue Cuvier, F-75005 Paris, France; Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (UMR 5554), Université de Montpellier, CNRS, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier, France; Géosciences Rennes (UMR 6118), Université de Rennes, CNRS, F-35000 Rennes, France
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Hymenoptera Evanioidea Apocrita new taxon parasitoid wasp taxonomy

Abstract

A new praeaulacid species, Habraulacus splendidus sp. nov., is described and illustrated based on a male specimen from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber. This newly discovered taxon is, inter alia, characterised by its relatively low number of antennomeres (about 28) and its complex forewing venation (i.e., with both 2rs-m and 3rs-m present). Together with the recent discoveries of praeaulacid wasps from Kachin amber, this new species lets us assume that the family Praeaulacidae was well-diversified in Cretaceous forests. The subsequent decline of this family likely occurred either in the Late Cretaceous or, in a more optimistic scenario, during the Cenozoic era.

References

  1. Basibuyuk, H.H., Rasnitsyn, A.P., Fitton, M.G. & Quicke, D.L.J. (2000) An archaic new genus of Evaniidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) and implications for the biology of ancestral evanioids. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, Geology Series, 56, 54–56.
  2. Cruickshank, R.D. & Ko, K. (2003) Geology of an amber locality in the Hukawng Valley, northern Myanmar. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 21, 441–455. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1367-9120(02)00044-5
  3. Engel, M.S. (2017) New evanioid wasps from the Cenomanian of Myanmar (Hymenoptera: Othniodellithidae, Aulacidae), with a summary of family-group names among Evanioidea. American Museum Novitates, 3871, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1206/3871.1
  4. Engel. M.S., Huang, D.Y., Alqarni, A.S. & Cai, C.Y. (2016) A remarkable evanioid wasp in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea). Cretaceous Research, 60, 121–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2015.11.012
  5. Goulet, H. & Huber, J.T. (1993) Hymenoptera of the world: an identification guide to families. ed. Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. 680 pp.
  6. Grimaldi, D. & Ross, A. (2017) Extraordinary Lagerstätten in amber, with particular reference to the Cretaceous of Burma. In: Fraser, N.C. & Sues, H.-D. (Eds), Terrestrial conservation Lagerstätten: windows into the evolution of life on land. Dunedin Academic Press, Edinburgh, pp. 287–342. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.12638994.12
  7. Harris, R.A. (1979) A glossary of surface sculpturing. Occasional papers in Entomology, 28, 1–31.
  8. Jouault, C. (2023) The second species of Sorellevania Engel, 2006 (Evanioidea: Evaniidae) from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. Palaeoentomology, 6 (1), 3–7. https://doi.org/10.11646/palaeoentomology.6.1.2
  9. Jouault, C., Marechal, A., Condamine, F.L., Wang, B., Nel, A., Legendre, F. & Perrichot, V. (2022) Including fossils in phylogeny: a glimpse into the evolution of the superfamily Evanioidea (Hymenoptera: Apocrita) under tip-dating and the fossilized birth-death process. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 194, 1396–1423. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab034
  10. Jouault, C., Nel, A. & Perrichot, V. (2020) New evanioid wasps (Hymenoptera: Praeaulacidae, Aulacidae) from Cenomanian Burmese amber. Cretaceous Research, 110, 104407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104407
  11. Jouault, C. & Nel, A. (2024) New evanioid wasps (Hymenoptera: Praeaulacidae, Aulacidae) from Cenomanian Burmese amber. Annales de Paléontologie, 110, 102662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annpal.2024.102662
  12. Jouault, C. & Rosse-Guillevic, S. (2023) A new genus of praeaulacid wasp (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea) from the mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber (Myanmar). Annales de Paléontologie, 109, 102599. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annpal.2023.102599.
  13. Li, L.F., Rasnitsyn, A.P., Shih, C.K. & Ren, D. (2015) A new genus and species of Praeaulacidae (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea) from Upper Cretaceous Myanmar amber. Cretaceous Research, 55, 19–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2015.01.007
  14. Li, L.F., Rasnitsyn, A.P., Shih, C., Labandeira, C.C., Buffington, M., Li, D. & Ren, D. (2018) Phylogeny of Evanioidea (Hymenoptera, Apocrita), with descriptions of new Mesozoic species from China and Myanmar. Systematic Entomology, 43, 810–842. https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12315
  15. Li, L.F., Shih, C.K. & Ren, D. (2014) Two new species of Nevania (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea: Praeaulacidae: Nevaniinae) from the Middle Jurassic of China. Alcheringa, 39, 140–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/03115518.2014.843376
  16. Li, L.F., Shih, C.K., Yang, J. & Ren, D. (2023) A new praeaulacid genus with a new species in Praeaulacidae (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea) from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber. Cretaceous Research, 146, 105483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105483
  17. Nel, A., Perrichot, P. & Néraudeau, D. (2003) The oldest trigonalid wasp in the Late Albian amber of Charente-Maritime (SW France) (Hymenoptera, Trigonalidae). Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae, 96, 503–508.
  18. Oberprieler, S.K., Rasnitsyn, A.P. & Brothers, D.J. (2012) The first wasps from the Upper Jurassic of Australia (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea, Praeaulacidae). Zootaxa, 3503 (1), 47–54. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3503.1.3
  19. Poinar, G. Jr. (2019) A new genus and species of wasp (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea: Praeaulacidae) associated with an angiosperm flower in Burmese amber. Palaeoentomology, 2 (5), 474–481. https://doi.org/10.11646/palaeoentomology.2.5.11
  20. Rasnitsyn, A.P. (1990) Hymenopterans, Vespida, in Pozdne-Mezozoyskie Nasekomye Vostochnogo Zabaykal’ya. Akademiya Nauk SSSR, Trudy Paleontologicheskogo Instituta, 239, 177–205.
  21. Rasnitsyn, A.P. & Zhang, H.C. (2010) Early evolution of Apocrita (Insect, Hymenoptera) as indicated by new findings in the Middle Jurassic of Daohugou, northeast China. Acta Geologica Sinica, 84, 834–873. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-6724.2010.00254.x
  22. Shi, G.H., Grimaldi, D.A., Harlow, G.E., Wang, J., Yang, M.C., Lei, W.Y., Li, Q.L. & Li, X.H. (2012) Age constraint on Burmese amber based on U-Pb dating of zircons. Cretaceous Research, 37, 155–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2012.03.014
  23. Yang, J., Jouault, C., Li, L., Shih, C. & Ren D. (2024) A New Genus of Praeaulacidae (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea) from Mid-Cretaceous Kachin Amber: Insights into a Putative New Praeaulacinae Subclade. Insects 15, 351. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects15050351
  24. Yu, T.T., Thomson, U., Mu, L., Ross, A., Kennedy, J., Broly, P., Xia, F.Y., Zhang, H.C., Wang, B. & Dilcher, D. (2019) An ammonite trapped in Burmese amber. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116, 11345–11350. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821292116
  25. Zhang, H.C. & Rasnitsyn, A.P. (2007) Nevaniinae subfam. n, a new fossil taxon (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Evanioidea: Praeaulicidae) from the Middle Jurassic of Daohugou in Inner Mongolia, China. Insect Systematics & Evolution, 38, 149–166. https://doi.org/10.1163/187631207788783987
  26. Zhang, H.C. & Zheng, J.F. (2000) Discovery of Praeaulacidae (Insecta Hymenoptera) in China and its significance. Acta Micropalaeontologica Sinica, 17, 416–421.