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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

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