Dating the Co-evolution Between Bees and Beetle Triungulins (Coleoptera: Cleridae) to the Mid-Cretaceous

Abstract

Presently, three families of Coleoptera (Meloidae, Ripiphoridae and Cleridae) produce triungulin larvae that parasitize aculeate Hymenoptera, especially various lineages of social and solitary bees, as well as wasps and other insects. The discovery of a fossil bee with associated beetle triungulins in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber provides the earliest known date for the co-evolution between bees and beetle triungulins, specifically those of the family Cleridae (Coleoptera). The fossil bee has been described in a new family and the beetle triungulins are described in the present work in the form genus and species Anebomorpha cercorhampha gen. et sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Cleridae). The description of Anebomorpha cercorhampha is based on 21 triungulins of the family Cleridae, five of which are in direct contact with the primitive bee in the amber. The remainder are at various distances behind the bee. This is the earliest fossil evidence of co-evolution between beetle triungulins and a member of the aculeate Hymenoptera.