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Issue: Vol. 6 No. 6: December 2023
Type: Article
Published: 2023-12-18
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.6.6.4
Page range: 620–629
Abstract views: 147
PDF downloaded: 7

A new enigmatic cyclostome parasitoid wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Rhyssalinae) with unusual ovipositor from Baltic amber

Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg 199034, Russia
Kaliningrad Amber Museum, Marshal Vasilevskiy Square, 1, Kaliningrad 236016, Russia
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ANDRANIK R. MANUKYAN

Scientist

Colección Nacional de Insectos, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 3er. Circuito exterior s/n Cd. Universitaria, Copilco, Coyoacán, A. P. 70-233, C. P 04510, Ciudad de México, México
Hymenoptera Braconidae Late Eocene fossil venation ovipositor Rhyssalinae Rhyssalus Palaeorhyssalus

Abstract

A new enigmatic genus and species presumably belonging to the cyclostome braconid parasitoid subfamily Rhyssalinae, Electroncophanes laticauda Belokobylskij & Zaldívar-Riverón gen. et sp. nov., are described and illustrated from the late Eocene Baltic amber. This new genus is characterised by having a wide and laterally compressed ovipositor, a unique character in the cyclostome braconids, and distally thickened ovipositor sheaths. It also has the fore wing with a postfurcal position of the recurrent vein (m-cu), distally closed brachial (second subdiscal) cell, not interstitial parallel vein (Cu1a), and a long submedial (subbasal) cell of the hind wing. Electroncophanes gen. nov. is placed in the new rhyssaline tribe Electroncophanini tribus nov. The presence of the flat and wide ovipositor found in the new species is discussed.

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