Discovery of a new symphytan wasp in the mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber (Hymenoptera, Syspastoxyelidae)

The mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber from Kachin State of northern Myanmar provides a scanty but rather diverse fauna of sawflies. Herein Grandixyela rasnitsyni gen. et sp. nov. is described and illustrated on the basis of a well-preserved male specimen from Myanmar amber. The new fossil genus and species is characterized by wing venation and body characters, such as 15-segmented antenna with the first flagellomere distinctly shorter than the remaining, pterostigma narrow and completely sclerotized, 1-RS distinct (not dot-like), RS distal of 2r-rs gently S-shaped, ending to pterostigma beyond its apex for a short distance. A checklist and a review of known syspastoxyelid species are discussed. Additionally, our findings not only provide important morphological characters, especially the well-preserved details of the venation and genitalia, but also broaden new data on the Cretaceous diversity of symphytan wasps and further extend the records of syspastoxyelids to six genera and seven species.

A new genus and species of the aphid parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae) from the Eocene Sakhalinian amber

The new fossil genus and species, Sakhalinoctonus alexrasnitsyni Davidian, gen. et sp. nov., of hymenopteran parasitoids of aphids from the subfamily Aphidiinae (Braconidae) is described from the Middle Eocene Sakhalinian amber. This new genus is similar with the extinct Protacanthoides Mackauer, 1961 and Promonoctonia Starý, 1973 as well as with the extant Calaphidius Mackauer, 1961, Indaphidius Starý, 1979, Aclitus Foerster, 1862 and Archaphidus Starý & Sсhlinger, 1967, and differs from them by the small number of antennal segments, details of wing venation and propodeum areolation, the shape and pubescence of the ovipositor sheaths.

New dicotyledonous woods from the San Carlos Formation (Upper Cretaceous) in Northern Mexico

We describe two new fossil woods from the San Carlos Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Chihuahua State, Mexico. The first wood resembles the fossil genus Metcalfeoxylon in having solitary vessels, scalariform perforation plates, vessel-ray parenchyma pits of similar size as the intervessel pits, axial parenchyma apotracheal diffuse and diffuse in aggregates, and heterocellular multiseriate rays with long, uniseriate tails. The second wood is a new fossil genus, and it is characterized by having diffuse porous wood, vessels predominantly solitary, vessel outlines oval and tending to be of two diameter classes, simple perforation plates, minute alternate intervessel pits, vessel-ray parenchyma pits similar to intervessel pits in size and shape, vasicentric tracheids, non-septate fibers, homocellular rays, and exclusively uniseriate and biseriate rays. This combination of features supports its placement in Myrtales (?Myrtaceae), in a new fossil-genus named Lazarocardenasoxylon. These two new records provide more information about the floristic composition of the Late Cretaceous flora of the San Carlos Formation and its relationship with those from the southern USA. However, a definitive picture of the floristic relationship of these Cretaceous floras of northern Mexico and southern USA remains elusive.

A new species of the fossil genus Electrotrichia (Insecta: Trichoptera: Hydroptilidae) from Rovno amber (Zhytomyr region, Olevsk locality)

Recent discoveries of amber deposits have resulted in numerous new caddisfly species of Rovno amber described in a series of recent papers (Melnitsky & Ivanov, 2010, 2013, 2016a, b). The list of species previously known from Rovno amber included 42 species (Ivanov et al., 2016; Perkovsky, 2017). Our study is based on a collection of Trichoptera from a new Rovno amber locality near Olevsk in Zhytomyr region. Nine amber species have been reported from this region (Legalov et al., 2021; Radchenko et al., 2021), including new ant species, a new anthribid, two new genera, and four new species of gall midges (Fedotova & Perkovsky, 2015, 2017); additional new cicadellid genus and species is described from closely connected fauna of Perebrody (Dietrich et al., 2021). It total, the new collection includes 6 pieces of Rovno Amber with six specimens of Trichoptera, two of those are described below as a new species of Electrotrichia.

Fossil wood from the Upper Cretaceous crater sediments of the Salpeterkop volcano, North West Province, South Africa

The Salpeterkop volcano forms part of what has been referred to as the Upper Cretaceous Sutherland Suite of alkaline rocks, an igneous province composed of olivine melilitites, carbonatites, trachytes and ultramafic lamprophyres. Salpeterkop is a remnant of the summit tuff ring structure that surrounds a crater which is almost 1 km in diameter and is filled with epiclastic strata. Five pieces of silicified wood were collected from the crater filled sediments, sectioned and identified as a new species of Cupressinoxylon, C. widdringtonioides. This is the first example of the fossil genus in South Africa. Only one member of the Cupressaceae s.l. occurs in southern Africa today. From the wide and indistinct growth rings in the fossil wood it can be deduced that the local climate was warm and humid with little or no seasonality, in support of global records of a warm Late Cretaceous. The preservation of the crater further signifies the low level of erosion the region has experienced since its emplacement.

Braconid parasitoids of ants (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Euphorinae, Neoneurini) from Baltic amber with a discussion of records of fossil larvae parasitizing ant workers

A new record of the fossil genus Elasmosomites Brues, 1933 from Baltic amber with an illustrated description of a new species, E. arkadylelejisp. nov. and the first description of a male of E. primordialis Brues, 1933 are provided. A key to currently known Neoneurini genera is compiled. A new record of fossil braconid larva emerging from an ant worker of Lasius schiefferdeckeri Mayr, 1868 is discussed and a correction to previous determination of ant hosts from amber is included.

Protomauroania mikhailovi—a new species of malachite beetles (Coleoptera, Dasytidae) in Rovno amber

A new species of malachite beetles, Protomauroania mikhailovi Tshernyshev & Perkovsky, sp. n. is described from late Eocene Rovno amber. The new beetle is the second species of the Eocene fossil genus Protomauroania Tshernyshev, 2021 that was first recorded in Rovno amber and shows fauna similarity of dasytids in Baltic and Rovno amber. The new species is typical owing to the following characters: antennae with 5-segmented wide club, surface covered with dark-brown long semi-erect thin setae, and the ultimate ventrite (apical sternite) simple, narrow, not depressed. Digital high resolution pictures of the beetle are provided.

Tropidogyne euthystyla sp. nov., a new small-flowered addition to the genus from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber

Tropidogyne euthystyla, described here, is the fourth species of this fossil genus to have been reported from amber deposits in northern Myanmar. The species are alike in features of the calyx, the shape and venation of the inferior ovary, and the absence of petals. They differ in the number and form of the styles, the lobing of the epigynous disc, and whether the flowers are apparently bisexual or unisexual. In the one species for which several flowers are available for study, T. pentaptera, floral diameters vary from 3.5 to 5.0 mm. The present species, known only from a single flower, is the smallest in the genus, with a floral diameter of only 2 mm. It differs from the 3 previously described species in having 2 stout, erect styles bearing a terminal stigma, whereas the other species have 2 or 3 short or long, arching styles that are decurrently stigmatic along the adaxial surface.

Phylogeny and biogeography of the enigmatic ghost lineage Cylindrotomidae (Diptera, Nematocera)

Ghost lineages have always challenged the understanding of organism evolution. They participate in misinterpretations in phylogenetic, clade dating, biogeographic, and paleoecologic studies. They directly result from fossilization biases and organism biology. The Cylindrotomidae are a perfect example of an unexplained ghost lineage during the Mesozoic, as its sister family Tipulidae is already well diversified during the Cretaceous, while the oldest Cylindrotomidae are Paleogene representatives of the extant genus Cylindrotoma and of the enigmatic fossil genus Cyttaromyia. Here we clarify the phylogenetic position of Cyttaromyia in the stem group of the whole family, suggesting that the crown group of the Cylindrotomidae began to diversify during the Cenozoic, unlike their sister group Tipulidae. We make a comparative analysis of all species in Cyttaromyia, together with the descriptions of the two new species, C. gelhausi sp. nov. and C. freiwaldi sp. nov., and the revision of C. obdurescens. The cylindrotomid biogeography seems to be incongruent with the phylogenetic analysis, the apparently most derived subfamily Stibadocerinae having apparently a ‘Gondwanan’ distribution, with some genera only known from Australia or Chile, while the most inclusive Cylindrotominae are Holarctic.