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| Burmorussus mirabilis |
Abstract
A new genus and species, Burmorussus mirabilis, is described based on two specimens from the mid‐Cretaceous Burmese amber, and considered to be a specialized parasitic wasp of wood‐living hosts. The new taxon is characterized by an orussid‐like ocellar crown, big eyes, antennae attached well above the clypeus, and antennal grooves or ventral transverse frontal carinae absent. Additionally, all legs carry a prominent lanceolate lobe on the third tarsomere. A similar structure is found, but organized differently, in Recent Orussidae and Stephanidae, serving as part of a vibration analyser. Although sharing some characters with families Karatavitidae, Orussidae and Paroryssidae, this new taxon cannot be assigned to any of these families. We propose a new monotypic family Burmorussidae and assign it to the superfamily Orussoidea. A phylogenetic analysis confirms the monophyly of Orussoidea, which occurs a sister group to Apocrita.
Keywords: Orussoidea, Karatavitoidea, phylogeny, mid‐Cretaceous, Burmese amber
Systematic palaeontology
By Qi Zhang, Dmitry S. Kopylov and A. P. Rasnitsyn
Order HYMENOPTERA Linnaeus, 1758
Superfamily ORUSSOIDEA Newman, 1834
Families included: Orussidae Newman, 1834, Paroryssidae Martynov, 1925, Burmorussidae fam. nov.
Family BURMORUSSIDAE nov.
Type genus: Burmorussus gen. nov.
Genus BURMORUSSUS nov.
Derivation of name: From Burma (former name of Myanmar) and genus Orussus Latreille, 1796.
Burmorussus mirabilis sp. nov.
Derivation of name: From Latin mirabilis, amazing.
Qi Zhang, Dmitry S. Kopylov, Alexandr P. Rasnitsyn, Yan Zheng and Haichun Zhang. 2020. Burmorussidae, A New Family of Parasitic Wasps (Insecta, Hymenoptera) from mid‐Cretaceous Burmese Amber. Papers in Palaeontology. DOI: 10.1002/spp2.1312
