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Issue: Vol. 7 No. 4: August 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-08-30
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.7.4.7
Page range: 479-490
Abstract views: 164
PDF downloaded: 10

A braconid wasp (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) with second recurrent vein in forewing from Lower Cretaceous Spanish 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), Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHE-PSL, Université des Antilles, CP50, 57 rue Cuvier 75005 Paris, France; Univ Rennes, CNRS, Géosciences Rennes, UMR 6118, F-35000 Rennes, France; Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (UMR 5554), Université de Montpellier, CNRS, F-34095 Montpellier, France
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; Lebanese University, Faculty of Science II, Natural Sciences Department, Fanar - El-Matn, P.O. Box 90656 Jdeidet, Beirut, Lebanon
Ichneumonoidea Albian taxonomy diversity wing venation Hymenoptera Braconidae

Abstract

Braconid wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) represent the second most diverse family of hymenopterans today. Despite their remarkable current diversity, their Cretaceous fossil record is sparse in comparison. Here, we describe Cantabriazyx perezdelafuentei Álvarez-Parra & Jouault gen. et sp. nov. from the Lower Cretaceous (middle Albian) amber of El Soplao, in northern Iberian Peninsula. This new species shows similarities in wing venation with Stephanorhyssalus longiscapus Belokobylskij & Jouault, 2021 from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. Both taxa share a combination of plesiomorphic and more derived characters, such as forewing with distinctly antefurcal condition of first recurrent vein (1m-cu) and presence of second recurrent vein (2m-cu), and hind wing with 2Cu. The presence of the second recurrent vein in the forewing is characteristic of Ichneumonidae, †Praeichneumonidae, and the braconid subfamily †Eoichneumoninae, while it is not common in other braconids. We compare the studied specimen with other Cretaceous Braconidae and with Apozyx penyai Mason, 1978 (Apozyginae), the only known extant braconid with a second recurrent vein. Furthermore, we discuss the characters of the braconid venation from an evolutionary standpoint. A checklist of all known braconids with second recurrent vein in forewing (including atavisms) is provided, together with an updated key for braconid genera possessing this vein. An illustration of ichneumonoid wing venations is included as a comparison framework.

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