Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 5 No. 4: July–August 2022
Type: Article
Published: 2022-08-30
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.5.4.10
Page range: 378–384
Abstract views: 428
PDF downloaded: 12

A fossil flat wasp (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae) from the early Eocene Green River Formation suggests past cosmopolitan distribution of the genus Eupsenella Westwood, 1874

Univ Rennes, CNRS, Géosciences Rennes, UMR 6118, 35000 Rennes, France; State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China
Univ Rennes, CNRS, Géosciences Rennes, UMR 6118, 35000 Rennes, France
Hymenoptera Chrysidoidea Bethylinae Ypresian USA

Abstract

A flat wasp specimen attributed to the genus Eupsenella Westwood, 1874 is described and figured from the early Eocene compressions of the Green River Formation. This fossil is the first known outside of the Old World for this genus and documents its wide distribution during the Paleogene, while it is currently confined to Australia and New Zealand. As for several other hymenopteran genera, we assume that this regression is linked to abiotic factors, i.e., the Cenozoic climate cooling, rather than to biotic factors.

References

  1. Archibald, S.B., Johnson, K.R., Mathewes, R.W. & Greenwood, D.R. (2011) Intercontinental dispersal of giant thermophilic ants across the Arctic during early Eocene hyperthermals. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (B), 278, 3679–3686. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.0729
  2. Azevedo, C.O. (2009) Synopsis of Lytopsenella Kieffer (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae). Zootaxa, 2286 (1), 58–64. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2286.1.4
  3. Azevedo, C.O., Alencar, I.D.C.C., Ramos, M.S., Barbosa, D.N., Colombo, W.D., Vargas, J. M. & Lim, J. (2018) Global guide of the flat wasps (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae). Zootaxa, 4489 (1), 1–294. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4489.1.1
  4. Berry, J.A. (1998) The bethyline species (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae: Bethylinae) imported into New Zealand for biological control of pest leafrollers. New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 25, 329–333. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.1998.9518162
  5. Brazidec, M. & Vilhelmsen, L. (2022) New species of belytines and diapriine wasps (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae) from Eocene Baltic amber. European Journal of Taxonomy, 813, 57–86. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2022.813.1733
  6. Brochu, C.A. (2010) A new alligatoroid from the lower Eocene Green River Formation of Wyoming and the origins of caimans. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 30, 1109–1126. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2010.483569
  7. Brues, C.T. (1933) The parasitic Hymenoptera of the Baltic amber, Part 1. Bernstein-Forschungen, 3, 4–178.
  8. Cockerell, T.D.A. (1907) A new fly (fam. Mycetophilidae) from the Green River beds. American Journal of Science, 136, 285–286. https://doi.org/10.2475/ajs.s4-23.136.285
  9. Cockerell, T.D.A. (1925) Plant and insect fossils from the Green River Eocene of Colorado. Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 66 (2556), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.00963801.66-2556.1
  10. Cole, R.D. & Picard, M.D. (1978) Comparative mineralogy of nearshore and offshore lacustrine lithofacies, Parachute Creek Member of the Green River Formation, Piceance Creek Basin, Colorado and eastern Uinta Basin, Utah. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 89 (10), 1441–1454. https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1978)89<1441:CMONAO>2.0.CO;2
  11. Colombo, W.D., Perkovsky, E.E. & Azevedo, C.O. (2020) Phylogenetic overview of flat wasps (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) reveals Elektroepyrinae, a new fossil subfamily. Palaeoentomology, 3 (3), 296–283. https://doi.org/10.11646/palaeoentomology.3.3.8
  12. Colombo, W.D., Perkovsky, E.E., Waichert, C.C. & Azevedo, C.O. (2021) Synopsis of the fossil flat wasps Epyrinae (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae), with description of three new genera and ten new species. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 19, 29–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2021.1882593
  13. De Ploëg, G.D. & Nel, A. (2004) A new bethylid wasp from the Lowermost Eocene amber of France (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae: Bethylinae). Geologica acta, 2, 75–88.
  14. Dlussky, G.M. & Rasnitsyn, A.P. (2002) Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Formation Green River and some other Middle Eocene deposits of North America. Russian Entomological Journal, 11, 411–436.
  15. Engel, M.S., McKellar, R.C. & Huber, J.T. (2013) A fossil species of the primitive mymarid genus Borneomymar (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) in Eocene Baltic amber. Novitates Paleoentomologicae, 5, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.17161/np.v0i5.4651
  16. Fricke, H.C. & Wing, S.L. (2004) Oxygen isotope and paleobotanical estimates of temperature and δ18O-latitude gradients over North America during the early Eocene. American Journal of Science, 304, 612–635. https://doi.org/10.2475/ajs.304.7.612
  17. Gordh, G. & Harris, A. (1996) New record and a new species of Eupsenella (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae) in New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 26, 529–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.1996.9517523
  18. Grande, L. (2013) The lost world of fossil lake: snapshots from deep time. University of Chicago Press, Illinois, 425 pp. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226922980.001.0001
  19. Heikkilä, M., Brown, J.W., Baixeras, J., Mey, W. & Kozlov, M.V. (2018) Re-examining the rare and the lost: a review of fossil Tortricidae (Lepidoptera). Zootaxa, 4394 (1), 41–60. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4394.1.2
  20. Hellawell, J. & Orr, P.J. (2012) Deciphering taphonomic processes in the Eocene Green River Formation of Wyoming. Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, 92, 353–365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-012-0092-6
  21. Hong, Y.C. (2002) Amber insects of China. Science and Technology Press, Beijing, 653 pp.
  22. Johnson, R.C., Mercier, T.J. & Brownfield, M.E. (2014) Spatial and stratigraphic distribution of water in oil shale of the Green River Formation, using Fischer Assay, Piceance Basin, northwestern Colorado. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report, 1059, 1–59. https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20141059
  23. Jossang, J., Bel-Kassaoui, H., Jossang, A., Seuleiman, M. & Nel, A. (2008) Quesnoin, a novel pentacyclic ent-diterpene from 55 million years old Oise amber. Journal of Organic Chemistry, 73, 412–417. https://doi.org/10.1021/jo701544k
  24. Lanes, G.O., Kawada, R., Azevedo, C.O. & Brothers, D.J. (2020) Revisited morphology applied for systematics of flat wasps (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae). Zootaxa, 4752 (1), 1–127. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4752.1.1
  25. MacGinitie, H.D. (1969) The Eocene Green River flora of northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah. University of California Press, Berkeley, 202 pp.
  26. Martynova, K.V., Perkovsky, E.E., Olmi, M. & Vasilenko, D.V. 2019. New records of Upper Eocene chrysidoid wasps from basins of Styr and Stokhod rivers (Rovno amber). Paleontological Journal, 53, 998–1023. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030119100125
  27. McCurry, M.R., Cantrill, D.J., Smith, P.M., Beattie, R., Dettmann, M., Baranov, V., Magee, C., Nguyen, J.M.T., Forster, M.A., Hinde, J., Pogson, R., Wang, H., Marjo, C.E., Vasconcelos, P. & Frese, M. (2022) A Lagerstätte from Australia provides insight into the nature of Miocene mesic ecosystem. Sciences advances, 8, eabm1406. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm1406
  28. Ngô-Muller, V., Garrouste, R., Pouillon, J., Christophersen, V., Christophersen, A. & Nel, A. (2019) The first representative of the fly genus Trentepohlia subgenus Mongoma in amber from the Miocene of Sumatra (Diptera: Limoniidae). Historical Biology, 33, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2019.1610948
  29. Paull, C. & Austin, A.D. (2006) The hymenopteran parasitoids of light brown apple moth, Epiphyas postvittana (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in Australia. Australian Journal of Entomology, 45, 142–156. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-6055.2006.00524.x
  30. Peñalver-Mollá, E. (1998) Estudio tafonómico y paleoecológico de los insectos del Mioceno de Rubielos de Mora (Teruel). Instituto de studios Turolenses, Teruel, 179 pp.
  31. Perkovsky, E.E. (2016) Tropical and Holarctic ants in late Eocene ambers. Vestnik Zoologi, 50, 111–122. https://doi.org/10.1515/vzoo-2016-0014
  32. Poinar, G.O. & Shaw, S.R. (2007) Megalyra baltica Poinar and Shaw n. sp. (Hymenoptera: Megalyridae), a long-tailed wasp from Baltic amber. Zootaxa, 1478, 65–68.
  33. Ramos, M.S. & Azevedo, C.O. (2012) Revision of Eupsenella Westwood, 1874 (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae). Zootaxa, 3539 (1), 1–80. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3539.1.1
  34. Ramos, M.S. & Azevedo, C.O. (2020) Revisited phylogeny of Bethylinae (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) solves basal polytomy. Insect Systematics & Evolution, 51, 296–346. https://doi.org/10.1163/1876312X-00002202
  35. Ramos, M.S., Perkovsky, E.E., Rasnitsyn, A.P. & Azevedo, C.O. (2014) Revision of Bethylinae fossils from Baltic, Rovno and Oise amber, with comments on the Tertiary fauna of the subfamily. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Palaontologie, 271, 203–228. https://doi.org/10.1127/0077-7749/2014/0385
  36. Rasnitsyn, A.P. (1990) Hymenoptera. In: Ponomarenko, A.G. (Ed.), Late Mesozoic insects of Eastern Transbaikalian. Nauka Press, Moscow, pp. 177–205.
  37. Sadowski, E.-M., Schmidt, A.R., Seyfullah, L.J. & Kunzmann, L. (2017) Conifers of the ‘Baltic amber forest’ and their palaeoecological significance. Stapfia, 106, 1–73.
  38. Schneider, C.A., Rasband, W.S. & Eliceiri, K.W. (2012) NIH Image to ImageJ: 25 years of image analysis. Nature Methods, 9, 671–675. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2089
  39. Scudder, S.H. (1890) The Tertiary insects of North America. U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, 4, 1–734. https://doi.org/10.3133/70038967
  40. Smith, M.E., Caroll, A.R. & Singer, B.S. (2008) Synoptic reconstructions of a major ancient lake system: Eocene Green River Formation, western United States. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 120, 54–84. https://doi.org/10.1130/B26073.1
  41. Sorg, M. (1988) Zur Phylogenie und Systematik der Bethylidae (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Chrysidoidea). Sonderveröffentlichungen des Geologischen Instituts der Universität zu Köln, 63, 1–146.
  42. Sturman, A.P. & Tapper, N.J. (2006) The weather and climate of Australia and New Zealand. Oxford University Press, 476 pp.
  43. Tiffney, B.H. (1985) The Eocene North Atlantic land bridge: its importance in Tertiary and modern phylogeography of the Northern Hemisphere. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum, 66, 243–273. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.part.13183
  44. Vršanský, P., Vidlička, L., Čiampor Jr., F. & Marsh, F. (2011) Derived, still living cockroach genus Carriblatoides (Blattida: Blattellidae) from the Eocene sediments of Green River in Colorado, USA. Insect Science, 19, 143–152. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7917.2010.01390.x
  45. Wang, B., Rust, J., Engel, M.S., Szwedo, J., Dutta, S., Nel, A., Fan, Y., Meng, F.W., Shi, G.L., Jarzembowski, E.A., Wappler, T., Stebner, F., Fang, Y., Mao, L.M., Zheng, D.R. & Zhang, H.C. (2014) A diverse paleobiota in Early Eocene Fushun amber from China. Current Biology, 24, 1606–1610. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.048
  46. Wang, B., Shi, G.L., Xu, C.P., Spicer, R.A., Perrichot, V., Schmidt, A.R., Feldberg, K., Heinrichs, J., Chény, C., Pang, H., Liu, X.Y., Gao, T.P., Wang, Z.X., Ślipiński, A., Solórzano-Kraemer, M.M., Heads, S.W., Thomas, M.J., Sadowski, E., Szwedo, J., Azar, D., Nel, A., Liu, Y., Chen, J., Zhang, Q., Zhang, Q.Q., Luo, C.H., Yu, T.T., Zheng, D.R., Zhang, H.C. & Engel, M.S. (2021) The mid-Miocene Zhangpu biota reveals an outstandingly rich rainforest biome in East Asia. Science Advances, 7, eabg0625. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abg0625
  47. Wappler, T., Guilber, E., Labandeira, C.C., Hörnschemeyer, T. & Wedmann, S. (2015) Morphological and behavioral convergence in extinct and extant bugs: the systematics and biology of an unusual lace bug from the Eocene. PLoS One, 10, e0133330. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133330
  48. Wilf, P. (2000) Late Paleocene-early Eocene climate changes in southwestern Wyoming: paleobotanical analysis. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 112, 292–307. https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(2000)112<292:LPECCI>2.0.CO;2
  49. Wolfe, J.A. (1975) Some aspects of plant geography of the Northern Hemisphere during the Late Cretaceous and Tertiary. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 62, 264–279. https://doi.org/10.2307/239519