Latest Articles from Fossil Record Latest 2 Articles from Fossil Record https://fr.pensoft.net/ Thu, 28 Mar 2024 19:22:33 +0200 Pensoft FeedCreator https://fr.pensoft.net/i/logo.jpg Latest Articles from Fossil Record https://fr.pensoft.net/ A new remarkable cimicoid genus and species (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Cimicomorpha) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, with implications for its aberrant male genitalia https://fr.pensoft.net/article/86784/ Fossil Record 26(1): 27-38

DOI: 10.3897/fr.26.e86784

Authors: Kazutaka Yamada, Shûhei Yamamoto, Yui Takahashi

Abstract: A new genus and species of cimicoid true bug, Ecpaglocoris ditomeus Yamada & Yamamoto, gen. et sp. nov., is described and illustrated from mid-Cretaceous (Cenomanian–Albian) amber in the Kachin State of northern Myanmar (Burma). This new fossil genus and species is reminiscent of members of Anthocoridae by the strongly flattened and elongated body, four-segmented labium, distinct costal fracture and presence of fossula spongiosa on fore tibiae, but should not be ascribed to this family. The new taxon cannot be placed in any extant cimicoid families, based upon hemelytral, male genital and other morphological structures. Based on the hemelytral membrane venation and presence of dorsal laterotergites on abdominal segments I to VIII, it can be assumed that this new genus belongs to the extinct family Vetanthocoridae. Ecpaglocoris ditomeus gen. et sp. nov. has aberrant male genitalia characterised by sickle-shaped left and right parameres and grooves running throughout the paramere. This characteristic indicates that traumatic insemination occurred in this genus. The peculiar combination of male genital characteristics seen in Ecpaglocoris gen. nov. prevents its placement in any of the extant cimicoid families.

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Research Article Fri, 13 Jan 2023 17:12:53 +0200
A case of frozen behaviour: A flat wasp female with a beetle larva in its grasp in 100-million-year-old amber https://fr.pensoft.net/article/82469/ Fossil Record 25(2): 287-305

DOI: 10.3897/fr.25.82469

Authors: Christine Kiesmüller, Joachim T. Haug, Patrick Müller, Marie K. Hörnig

Abstract: Parasitism, a malignant form of symbiosis, wherein one partner, the parasite, derives benefits to the detriment of another, the host, is a widespread phenomenon. Parasitism sensu lato is understood here to include many phenomena, like parasitoidism, kleptoparasitism, phoresy and obligate parasitism. Insecta has many in-groups that have evolved a parasitic life-style; one of the largest in-groups of these is probably the group of Hymenoptera. Bethylidae, the group of flat wasps, is a smaller in-group of Aculeata, the group of hymenopterans with venom stings; representatives of Bethylidae are parasitic. They are more specifically larval ectoparasitoids, meaning that their immature stages are externally developing parasites that kill their host organism at pupation (end of interaction). They mostly parasitise immature representatives of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera. Female flat wasps search for a host for their progeny, paralyse it with their venom sting and then oviposit onto it. Herein we describe one of the oldest findings of parasitic interactions of parasitoid wasps with their progenies’ hosts, specifically a flat wasp female grasping and (potentially) stinging a beetle immature in Cretaceous Kachin (Myanmar) amber (ca. 100 million years old). This finding indicates that this type of parasitic interaction existed since the Cretaceous, temporally close to the earliest findings of representatives of Bethylidae.

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Research Article Fri, 16 Sep 2022 16:32:36 +0300