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Issue: Vol. 8 No. 5: October 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-10-31
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.8.5.6
Page range: 491-501
Abstract views: 45
PDF downloaded: 29

A new species of Cretevania (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae) preserved in Albian amber of El Soplao (Cantabria, Spain)

Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (IGME), CSIC, 46004 València, Spain
Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Oxford University Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PW, UK
Departament de Botànica i Geologia, Universitat de València, 46100 Burjassot, Spain
Insecta ensign wasp new taxon wing venation Mesozoic Hymenoptera Evaniidae Cantabria Spain

Abstract

A new species of the diverse extinct genus Cretevania Rasnitsyn, 1975, Cretevania orgonomecorum Peñalver & Sánchez-García sp. nov., is described from Spanish Lower Cretaceous (middle Albian) amber from El Soplao, based on a single, complete and well-preserved female. The new species is compared with other known species of the genus, mainly those with similar wing shape and venation, large body size, and those described from Albian Spanish amber. This new species is among the largest within the genus and similar in body length to C. tenuis from Cenomanian Kachin amber (Myanmar) and C. pristina from Barremian compression rocks of Beipiao (China). Its description and the revision of other species have led to the identification of previously unrecognized characters which may be useful in future taxonomic diagnoses. These results contribute to a more accurate understanding of interspecific differences and will help delimit species boundaries within a genus, proving increasingly diverse in the Cretaceous. The previously established synonymisation of the genus Procretevania as junior to Cretevania is also reviewed here. Palaeobiological comments are provided based on anatomical features of the genus.

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