Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 8 No. 1: February 2025
Type: Correspondence
Published: 2025-02-28
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.8.1.2
Page range: 5-8
Abstract views: 270
PDF downloaded: 3

An ensign wasp in Late Eocene amber from Ukraine (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae)

Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West, New York 10024-5192, USA; Museum at Prairiefire, 5801 West 135th Street, Overland Park, Kansas 66223, USA
Hymenoptera Evaniidae

Abstract

The ensign wasps, family Evaniidae, are an immediately distinctive family of parasitoid Hymenoptera, characterized by the reduced metasomal gaster attached high to the mesosoma via a short petiolate first metasomal segment. Species are, where known, parasitoids of roach oothecae. Among the approximately 20 extant genera, the genus Evaniella Bradley, 1905 is a relatively common and widespread group, found throughout the New World and with approximately 75 described extant species (Deans, 2005). In fact, Evaniella is the most widespread New World genus of ensign wasps. Given this, it is remarkable that species of Evaniella should be found in the Eocene of Europe (vide infra), demonstrating a once greater distribution relative to today. Naturally, however, this presumes that the fossil species belong to the crown group of the genus and that the lineage is monophyletic. Monophyly of Evaniella has been supported in recent phylogenetic estimates (e.g., Sharanowski et al., 2019) but fossil species have yet to be included in such analyses for the family.

References

  1. Bradley, J.C. (1905) Corrections in Evaniidae, etc. Canadian Entomologist, 37 (2), 63–64. https://doi.org/10.4039/Ent3763-2
  2. Bradley, J.C. (1908) The Evaniidae. Ensign-flies, an archaic family of Hymenoptera. Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 34 (2), 101–194, +pls. v–xv.
  3. Brues, C.T. (1933) The parasitic Hymenoptera of the Baltic amber. Part I. Bernstein-Forschungen, 3, 4–178, +pls. 2–13.
  4. Deans, A.R. (2005) Annotated catalog of the world’s ensign wasp species (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae). Contributions of the American Entomological Institute, 34, 1–164.
  5. Deans, A.R. & Huben, M. (2003) Annotated key to the ensign wasp (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae) genera of the world, with descriptions of three new genera. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 105 (4), 859–875.
  6. Deans, A.R., Basibuyuk, H.H., Azar, D. & Nel, A. (2004) Descriptions of two new Early Cretaceous (Hauterivian) ensign wasp genera (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae) from Lebanese amber. Cretaceous Research, 25 (4), 509–516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2004.04.003
  7. Huber, J.T. & Sharkey, M.J. (1993) Structure. In: Goulet, H. & Huber, J.T. (Eds), Hymenoptera of the world: An identification guide to families. Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, pp. 13–59.
  8. Jennings, J.T., Krogmann, L. & Priya. (2013) Happy birthday, Willi Hennig!—Hyptia hennigi sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae), a fossil ensign wasp from Eocene Baltic amber. Zootaxa, 3731 (3), 395–398. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3731.3.10
  9. Jennings, J.T., O’Carroll, D.D., Priya, Krogmann, L. & Austin, A.D. (2018) A new fossil evaniid wasp from Eocene Baltic amber, with highly modified compound eyes unique within the Hymenoptera. Journal of Paleontology, 92 (2), 189–195. https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2017.83
  10. 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
  11. Jouault, C., Maréchal, 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 (4), 1396–1423. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab034
  12. Nel, A., Waller, A., Hodebert, G. & De Ploëg, G. (2002a) An ensign-fly in the lowermost Eocene amber from the Paris Basin (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae). Annales de la Société Entomologique de France, 38 (3), 263–269.
  13. Nel, A., Martínez-Delclòs, X. & Azar, D. (2002b) A new ensign-fly from the Lower-Middle Miocene Dominican amber (Hymenoptera, Evaniidae). Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France, 107 (3), 217–221. https://doi.org/10.3406/bsef.2002.16844
  14. Sawoniewicz, J. & Kupryjanowicz, J. (2003) Evaniella eocenica sp. nov. from the Baltic amber (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae). Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 46 (supplement), 267–270.
  15. Sharanowski, B.J., Peixoto, L., Dal Molin, A. & Deans, A.R. (2019) Multi-gene phylogeny and divergence estimations for Evaniidae (Hymenoptera). PeerJ, 7, e6689. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6689
  16. Townes, H. (1949) The Nearctic species of Evaniidae (Hymenoptera). Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 99 (3253), 525–539. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.00963801.99-3253.525