A New Lineage of Enigmatic Diaprioid Wasps in Cretaceous Amber (Hymenoptera: Diaprioidea)

Abstract

A new family of microhymenopteran wasps is described and figured from three new species discovered in Cretaceous amber of Spain (Albian) and New Jersey (Turonian). Spathiopterygidae Engel and Ortega-Blanco, new family, is allied to the Diapriidae and Maamingidae (Proctotrupomorpha: Diaprioidea), sharing with these families putatively derived features relative to Monomachidae. The family contains three genera and three species, all new: Spathiopteryx alavarommopsis Engel and Ortega-Blanco, new genus and species, and Myamaropsis turolensis Engel and Ortega-Blanco, new genus and species, both from the Early Cretaceous (Albian) of Spain, and Spathopria sayrevillensis Engel, Ortega-Blanco, and Grimaldi, new genus and species, from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian) of New Jersey. Spathopria sayrevillensis is reconstructed using x-ray synchrotron microtomography. In addition, a peculiar new genus and species, Iberopria perialla Engel, Ortega-Blanco, and Delclòs, of stem-group Diapriidae is described from Spanish

The wasp family Spathiopterygidae in mid-Cretaceous amber from Myanmar (Hymenoptera: Diaprioidea)

“…comm.). The recently discovered Spathiopterygidae were hitherto known from Spanish and New Jersey ambers (Aguiar et al, 2013;Engel et al, 2013), (Table 1) but herein we report on the discovery of the family from the mid-Cretaceous deposits of northern Myanmar.…”

A new genus and species of maimetshid wasps in Lebanese Early Cretaceous amber (Hymenoptera: Maimetshidae)

“…The same is, of course, true for many peculiar Mesozoic taxa (e.g., , and unless there are other compelling reasons for doing so, it seems best to avoid a proliferation of small or even monotypic family-group taxa in the absence of phylogenetic resolution, although many well-argued exceptions abound (e.g., Rasnitsyn, 1975;Liu et al, 2007;Gibson et al, 2007;Zhang & Rasnitsyn, 2007;Engel et al, 2013Engel et al, , 2016aEngel et al, , 2016bEngel & Wang, 2016;Engel, in press). As the diversity of Maimetshidae continues to be documented and described, particularly from well-preserved material in amber, expanded cladistic analyses of Trigonalyoidea s.l.…”

“…Vilhelmsen et al (2010) were able to establish Maimetshidae as thoroughly distinct from Megalyridae and corroborated more conclusively their relationship to Trigonalyidae. Maimetshidae have become one of a series of apocritan families that seem to be hallmarks of the Cretaceous, in this respect analogous to the Stigmaphronidae (Rasnitsyn, 1975;Engel & Grimaldi, 2009;Ortega-Blanco et al, 2011a;McKellar & Engel, 2011a, 2012, Spathiopterygidae (Engel et al, 2013Krogmann et al, 2016), Alavarommatidae (Ortega-Blanco et al, 2011b), Gallorommatidae (Gibson et al, 2007;Ortega-Blanco et al, 2011b), and Serphitoidea (Brues, 1937;Kozlov & Rasnitsyn, 1979;Ortega-Blanco et al, 2011c;McKellar & Engel, 2011b, 2012Engel & Perrichot, 2014;Engel, 2015). Like several of these families, Maimetshidae were widespread and could be found throughout the world (Table 1).…”

A New Bethylid Wasp in Lebanese Early Cretaceous Amber (Hymenoptera: Chrysidoidea), with Comments on other Mesozoic Taxa

“…The preservation of historical Taimyrian material is such that new material may be the only way to resolve many character state codings (M.S.E., personal obs. ), although the application of techniques such as micro-CT scans may offer a way to circumvent these challenges (as has been done for other small amber inclusions, e.g., Perrichot et al, 2011;Chatzimanolis et al, 2013;Engel et al, 2011Engel et al, , 2013b. In addition to their varied phylogenetic and classificatory implications, it remains to be discovered what these enigmatic Mesozoic taxa can illuminate about the early biology and ecology of the family.…”