Skip to main content

Palaeorhoptrocentrus tenuicornis, Taphaeus obscurus and Eubazus electrus, braconid parasitoid wasps from late Eocene Baltic amber

Dlium Palaeorhoptrocentrus tenuicornis, Taphaeus obscurus and Eubazus electrus, braconid parasitoid wasps from late Eocene Baltic amber

NEWS - Slim antenna parasitoid wasp (Palaeorhoptrocentrus tenuicornis sp. nov. Doryctinae), dark color parasitoid wasp (Taphaeus obscurus Belokobylskij & Zaldívar-Riverón sp. nov. Brachistinae: Diospilini) and electron parasitoid wasp (Eubazus electrus Belokobylskij & Zaldívar-Riverón sp. nov. Brachistinae: Brachistini) are reported as new species.

Palaeorhoptrocentrus tenuicornis described based on a single female and named after “tenuis” (Latin for slender) and “cornis” (Latin for horn or projection) referring to its very slender antennae. Specimen from Primorskiy quarry, Yantarny, Kaliningrad Province, Russia. Baltic amber from the Late Eocene, Priabonian range.

This species is similar to the type species of the genus, Palaeorhoptrocentrus kanti Belokobylskij 2023, but the first antennal flagellar segment is slender (vs. broad in P. kanti), the second radiomedial cell of the forewing is submarginal, narrow (vs. rather broad), the interstitial nervulus, 1cu-a, (vs. postfurcal), the recurrent vein, m-cu, the hindwing interstitial (vs. antefurcal), the temples are smooth laterally (vs. sculpted), the sides of the pronotum and metapleuron are distinctly and broadly sculpted (vs. very smooth) and the precoxal sulcus is rugose-notched (vs. almost smooth).

Taphaeus obscurus described from a single female and the name is based on the Latin word “obscurus” meaning dark referring to the dark body color and the forewing infusion. Specimen from Primorskiy quarry, Yantarny, Kaliningrad Province, Russia. Baltic amber from the Late Eocene, Priabonian range.

This species is similar to Taphaeus praecox Brues 1923 from Baltic amber, but the head is less transverse, about 2.0 times wider than long in the middle (vs. wider transverse, about 3.0 times wider than long in the middle in T. praecox), the first flagellar segment is 2.2 times longer than the maximum width (vs. 4.0 times), the second to last antennal segment is almost as long as the maximum width (vs. 2.0 times longer) and the second tergite is 0.7 times longer than the first tergite (vs. almost the same).

Eubazus electrus described from a single female and the name is based on the Greek word “élektron” meaning amber, since the holotype specimen was found in Baltic amber. Specimen from Primorskiy quarry, Yantarny, Kaliningrad Province, Russia. Baltic amber from the Late Eocene, Priabonian range.

The new species differs from the three species of Eubazus from Baltic amber: Eubazus crassicornis (Brues, 1933), Eubazus gracilicornis (Brues, 1939) and Eubazus normalis (Brues, 1923) in having multisegmented antennae with 26 segments (vs. 17-19 segments).

E. electrus having fused forewings (vs. hyaline in E. crassicornis); thickened antennal flagella and weakly transverse penultimate segment (vs. slender and elongate penultimate segment in E. gracilicornis); scape short and wide, 1.5 times longer than wide, first flagellar segment 3.0 times longer than wide, and ovipositor almost as long as body (vs. scape 2.0 times longer than wide, first flagellar segment 4.0 times longer than wide and ovipositor as long as metasoma in E. normalis).

Original research

Sergey A. Belokobylskij, Madeline V. Pankowski & Alejandro Zaldívar-Riverón (2024). New species of braconid parasitoid wasps from the subfamilies Doryctinae and Brachistinae from late Eocene Baltic amber. Palaeoentomology 007 (5): 645–658, DOI:10.11646/palaeoentomology.7.5.8

Dlium theDlium
Labels:

Popular Posts

Black jumping spider (Hyllus diardi)

Black jumping spider ( Hyllus diardi ) is an animal species in the Salticidae, black and white spiders, long hair, round head, elongated belly, relatively small, arboreal, perched on leaves in bushes and low trees in forests and agricultural lands. H. diardi has black and white color, shiny surface and white hair all over the body. The head is round, shiny black with a linear white line in the middle. Black eyes on the front of the head. The stomach has an elongated, jointed, black cylindrical shape with black plots at the top of each segment. The legs are long, segmented, shiny black or brownish in color and hairy. Black jumping spiders live arboreal, perch on leaf surfaces, low bushes, trees in forests, agricultural land, roadsides and shade. Very sensitive to human presence and will hide behind leaves to avoid sight. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Chelicerata Class: Arachnida Order: Araneae Suborder: Araneomorphae Infraorder: Entelegynae Superfamily: Salticoi...
Read more

Hairy senna (Senna hirsuta)

Hairy senna ( Senna hirsuta ) is a species of plant in the Fabaceae family. It is an upright shrub, growing up to 2.5 meters tall. The leaves are compound on petioles up to 13 cm long. They usually have 2-6 pairs of leaflets, are egg-shaped, and have white hairs, up to 10 cm long and 5 cm wide. The flowers are yellow and arranged at the tips of branches and in the upper leaf axils in clusters of 2-5. The petals are 12-16 mm long, have 6 stamens, 3-8 mm long anthers, and 4 staminodes. Flowering occurs almost monthly. The pods are cylindrical, up to 15 cm long, 4-6 mm wide, and curved. TAXON Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Fabales Family: Fabaceae Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae Tribe: Cassieae Subtribe: Cassiinae Genus: Senna Mill. in Gard. Dict. Abr., ed. 4.: [s.p.] (1754) Species: Senna hirsuta (L.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby in Phytologia 44: 499 (1979) Variety: Senna hirsuta var. acuminata (Benth.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby, Senna ...
Read more

Water strider (Ptilomera tigrina)

Water strider ( Ptilomera tigrina ) is an animal species in Gerridae, a predatory insect that spends time on the surface of fast water with back and forth movements with a speed of up to 1.5 m/s to float and is very easily recognized by its habit of always walking and jumping on around water. P. tigrina has an elongated, dark cylindrical body with several bright or silvery white parts. A pair of big eyes at the tip of the head. The stomach has joints and tapers towards the back. A pair of antennae is very long with several joints and stick-shaped legs. The forelegs pair have three sections with two joints and the first is slightly thickened. The second and third pairs of legs are several times the length of the body. Water strider has a very fast movement on the surface of the water to float and target prey near the surface. This species is a model in biophysical research regarding the ability to float on the surface and the ability to move forward quickly. The buoyancy originates f...
Read more