<p><strong>First scolebythid wasp (Hymenoptera: Chrysidoidea, Scolebythidae) in the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber</strong></p>

Abstract

Scolebythidae is a small relict family of ordinary looking small wasps with only four genera and six species in the contemporary fauna of Central and South America, South Africa, Madagascar, north China, Thailand, Australia and Fiji; and with 11 genera and 13 species in various Cretaceous, Eocene and Miocene ambers and rocks (Engel, 2015; present paper) ascribed to two subfamilies, one predominantly living and another mostly extinct (Engel et al., 2013). Biologically, Scolebythidae are known as gregarious parasites of xylophagous larvae of Cerambycidae and Ptinidae (Anobiinae) (summarized by Engel, 2015). Based on the morphology, the family is usually considered phylogenetically as the second most (after Plumariidae) basal one in Chrysidoidea (Brothers, 1975; Rasnitsyn, 1988, 2002; Brothers & Carpenter, 1993).