A new twisted-wing parasitoid from mid-Cretaceous amber of Myanmar (Strepsiptera)

The phylogeny of Coleopterida (Hexapoda) – morphological characters and molecular phylogenies

“…The most ancestral representative of the order – † Protoxenos Pohl, Beutel & Kinzelbach (Pohl et al ., ) – is similar to extant strepsipterans like all other described fossils of this group (e.g. Engel et al ., ; Pohl & Beutel, ). Extinct forms sharing features of both orders and possibly belonging in the stem group of Coleopterida are presently unknown.…”

“…However, at present no fossils documenting the earliest evolution of the lineage are available. The oldest known representatives of Strepsiptera are from Burmese amber (Grimaldi et al ., ; Engel et al ., ; Pohl & Beutel, ), approximately 100 Ma, more than 200 Myr after the presumptive origin of Coleopterida. The most ancestral representative of the order – † Protoxenos Pohl, Beutel & Kinzelbach (Pohl et al ., ) – is similar to extant strepsipterans like all other described fossils of this group (e.g.…”

A putative twisted-wing parasitoid planidium (Insecta: Strepsiptera) in Taimyr Upper Cretaceous amber

“…The posterior margin of the mesonotum in the Canadian species is straight, while it is distinctly concave in the M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 10 one from Taimyr. If these are strepsipterans, as we tend to suspect (vide infra), then it would be fascinating to know what the corresponding adults might have been like for these species, and whether they were anything like the adults of the primitive, stem-group fossil genera Cretostylops Grimaldi and Kathirithamby, Phthanoxenos Engel and Huang, Kinzelbachilla Pohl and Beutel, or Protoxenos Pohl et al (Grimaldi et al, 2005;Pohl et al, 2005;Engel et al, 2016;Pohl and Beutel, 2016). Of course, and quite unfortunately, adult strepsipterans have not yet been recovered from either Canadian or Taimyrian ambers, but the discovery of these planidia reinforces the hope that in time males shall be recovered and shed further light on the Cretaceous diversity of Strepsiptera.…”

“…11 symplesiomorphies with other groups; as well as unique apomorphies of their own. Indeed, only adult Mesozoic Strepsiptera are known for stem groups Engel et al, 2016;Pohl and Beutel, 2016), and so the traits embodied by their associated planidia are entirely unknown, but would have assuredly differed to some degree from modern strepsipteran larvae.…”

“…Accordingly, most fossils are preserved in amber and largely comprise the freeliving adult males, because as they are the most conspicuous dispersal form. Males of various families have been recorded in lower Miocene Dominican amber (Kinzelbach, 1979(Kinzelbach, , 1983Kathirithamby and Grimaldi, 1993;Pohl and Kinzelbach, 1995;Kogan, et al 2015) and Eocene Baltic amber (e.g., Menge, 1866;Kulicka, 1978Kulicka, , 1979Kulicka, , 2001Kinzelbach and Pohl 1994;Kinzelbach, 1995, 2001;Pohl et al, 2005;Kathirithamby and Henderickx, 2008;Henderickx et al, 2013), with one male recorded from lower Eocene Fushun amber (Wang et al, 2014(Wang et al, , 2016 and three described males in the Upper Cretaceous amber of Myanmar Engel et al, 2016;Pohl and Beutel, 2016). Two pupae of male Myrmecolacidae parasitic in an ant, a female cephalothorax in an ant host, a planidium, and two adult males were also recorded from Middle Eocene oil slate, Baltic amber, Eocene brown coal of the Geiseltal, and compression deposits in thinly bedded limestone, respectively (Kinzelbach and Lutz, 1985;Lutz 1990;Pohl and Kinzelbach, 2001;Pohl, 2009;Antell and Kathirithamby, in press).…”