Two new and disparate fossil bee flies (Bombyliidae: Anthracinae) from the Americas and reassessment of Anthrax dentoni Lewis, 1969

Diverse fruits and seeds of the mid-Eocene Kishenehn Formation, northwestern Montana, USA, and their implications for biogeography

“…4) 68 % (34 species) are pollinated primarily by wind, 8 % (4 species) by water and 20 % by (or possibly by) insects (10 species). The orders of insects with pollinators found at Kishenehn include Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera (Greenwalt et al 2015). Of the dipterans known from the Kishenehn, the genera Bibiodes coquillett (Scudder and Cannings 2006), Helius lePeletier et Serville (Kania-Kłosok 2021), Eoanomala greenwalt et evenHuiS (Greenwalt et al 2015), Drapetis Meigen (Ollerton et al 2009) and Lonchoptera Meigen (Orford et al 2016) are known to have modern pollinators or come from a pollinating family (Greenwalt et al 2019).…”

“…The orders of insects with pollinators found at Kishenehn include Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera (Greenwalt et al 2015). Of the dipterans known from the Kishenehn, the genera Bibiodes coquillett (Scudder and Cannings 2006), Helius lePeletier et Serville (Kania-Kłosok 2021), Eoanomala greenwalt et evenHuiS (Greenwalt et al 2015), Drapetis Meigen (Ollerton et al 2009) and Lonchoptera Meigen (Orford et al 2016) are known to have modern pollinators or come from a pollinating family (Greenwalt et al 2019). The extinct genus Eosciarites raSnitSyn may have also been a pollinator since extant members of the family Sciaridae are pollinators (Koschnitzke 2018, Greenwalt et al 2019.…”

“…Lacustrine shales of the Kishenehn Formation in northwestern Montana are perhaps best known for their rich insect fauna and are regarded as a potential Conservat Lagerstätte (Harbach and Greenwalt 2012, Greenwalt and Labandeira 2013, 2014, 2016, 2019 that includes 15 orders dominated by the families Chironomidae (Diptera) and Corixidae (Hemiptera) (Greenwalt et al 2015). In particular, the dipterans are incredibly diverse, represented by 21 different families with more species to be described (Greenwalt et al 2019).…”

“…In particular, the dipterans are incredibly diverse, represented by 21 different families with more species to be described (Greenwalt et al 2019). These insects are unusually well preserved due to the presence of microbial mats which trapped the insects presumably in the spring and/or summer months (Greenwalt et al 2015). The depth of the lake or fluvial delta is up for debate because there is conflicting evidence supporting both shallow nearshore and deep offshore environment (see Greenwalt et al 2015).…”

Potential new evidences of bee fly parasitoidism on ground-dwelling insects in mid–Cretaceous Burmese amber (Diptera: Bombyliidae)

“…The Bombyliidae family is at the 'base' of the Asiloidea and Empidoidea (Wiegmann et al 2003;Shin et al 2018), as either sister group to all other asiloids (Woodley, 1989;Yeates, 2002;Wiegmann et al, 2011;Shin et al, 2018), or as sister group to all other heterodactylan flies (Trautwein et al, 2010;Shin et al, 2018). The Cenozoic bombyliid fossil record is, compared to the Cretaceous record, well known with 35 genera and nearly 55 species described from fossil compressions and amber inclusions (Evenhuis, 1994;Hennig, 1966;Evenhuis, 2002;Nel & De Ploëg, 2004;Nel, 2006Nel, , 2008Wedmann & Yeates, 2008;Evenhuis, 2013;Greenwalt et al, 2015). However, the oldest records of this family are from the Burmese amber with only seven described species of bee flies (Grimaldi, 2016;Zhang & Wang, 2016;Ye et al, 2019), all characterized by a short proboscis, brush-shaped flagellum, a relatively 'plesiomorphic' venation, and variable female terminalia.…”