Phylogeny of Stephanidae (Hymenoptera: Apocrita) with a new genus from Upper Cretaceous Myanmar amber

Abstract

AbstractA new wasp species, Lagenostephanus lii Li, Rasnitsyn, Shih and Ren gen. et sp.n., is assigned to Stephaninae (Hymenoptera: Stephanidae). The specimen is described from the lowermost Upper Cretaceous Myanmar (Burmese) amber. This is the second stephanid wasp described from Myanmar amber after Kronostephanus zigrasi Engel & Grimaldi, representing the earliest fossil occurrences of Stephanidae. Based on morphological characters of all extant and extinct genera, a phylogenetic analysis of Stephanidae was conducted. The results indicate that Schlettereriinae and Stephaninae are monophyletic, whereas Electrostephanus Brues, as the only genus within Electrostephaninae, belongs to Stephaninae. Therefore, we propose a synonymy of Electrostephaninae with Stephaninae. Based on the fossil evidence, we infer that the family of Stephanidae was significantly diverse in the Late Cretaceous and that they originated during the Early Cretaceous or late Jurassic. A key to genera of Stephanidae is provided.This published work has been registered in ZooBank, http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:C082C245-8FD3-42B0-880F-94333286500B.