Abstract
The Cretaceous family Spathiopterygidae (Hymenoptera: Diaprioidea), containing five species in four genera, showed a wide distribution from the upper Barremian to the Turonian. We describe two new representatives of the family from the upper Albian San Just outcrop in the eastern Iberian Peninsula that correspond to Diameneura marveni gen. et sp. nov. Santer and Álvarez-Parra and to a female member of Mymaropsis turolensis Engel and Ortega-Blanco, 2013. The forewing venation of Diameneura marveni gen. et sp. nov. is interpreted, allowing an appropriate comparison for future descriptions. Furthermore, we provide a diagnosis for Mymaropsis baabdaensis since no diagnosis was proposed in the initial paper. We indicate the taphonomic characteristics of the newly described specimens, discuss the interrelationships of the family, and provide new insights about the sexual dimorphism and palaeobiology of spathiopterygids.
Highlights
Hymenoptera is a diverse insect order containing more than 153,000 living species that play a panoply of ecological roles in the environment, such as herbivory, pollination, predation, and parasitoidism (Peters et al, 2017)
We provide the first diagnosis for Mymaropsis baabdaensis originally described from the Journal Pre-proof Barremian Lebanese amber
Amber pieces with bioinclusions are related to aerial resin produced by the branches or trunks of resiniferous trees, and the different internal aspect might depend on the conditions of resin production such as stressful situations caused by palaeofires (Martínez-Delclòs et al, 2004)
Summary
Hymenoptera is a diverse insect order containing more than 153,000 living species that play a panoply of ecological roles in the environment, such as herbivory, pollination, predation, and parasitoidism (Peters et al, 2017). It has shown outstanding diversity since the Triassic, with more than 3,607 extinct species described to date (Fossilworks, available at http://fossilworks.org, accessed 13 December 2021). The Cretaceous shows an impressive diversity of these insects thank to the specimens found in Burmese amber Among this diversity, several extinct hymenopteran families are restricted to the Cretaceous, such as Serphitidae, Aptenoperissidae, and Ohlhoffiidae (Ortega-Blanco et al, 2011a; Rasnitsyn et al., 2017; Jouault et al, 2021c). Their studies are crucial to understand the diversification and palaeobiology of hymenopterans during the early evolution of the Recent ecosystems
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