New fossil ephialtitids elucidating the origin and transformation of the propodeal-metasomal articulation in Apocrita (Hymenoptera)

BMC Evolutionary Biology

Dong Ren¹  Alexandr P Rasnitsyn²  Chungkun Shih¹  Longfeng Li¹ 

[1] College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, 105 Xisanhuanbeilu, Haidian District 100048, Beijing, China;Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London Sw7 5BD, UK

关键词: Inner Mongolia;    Liutiaogou;    Yixian formation;    Daohugou;    Jiulongshan formation;    New genera;   

Others  :  1158257
DOI  :  10.1186/s12862-015-0317-1

 received in 2014-07-23, accepted in 2015-02-24,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

Apocrita has a special structure that its first abdominal segment has been incorporated into the thorax as the propodeum. The remaining abdomen, metasoma, is connected to this hybrid region via a narrow propodeal-metasomal articulation forming a “wasp waist”, which serves an important function of providing maneuverability, flexibility and posture for oviposition. However, the origin and transformation of the propodeal-metasomal articulation are still vague. Ephialtitidae, as the basal group of Apocrita from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous, have shown various types of propodeal-metasomal articulations.

Results

This study describes and illustrates two new genera with three new species, Acephialtitia colossa gen. et sp. nov., Proephialtitia acanthi gen. et sp. nov. and P. tenuata sp. nov., collected respectively from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation at Liutiaogou and the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation at Daohugou, both in Inner Mongolia, China. These genera are assigned to the Ephialtitidae based on their complete wing venation, e.g. 2r-rs, 2r-m, 3r-m and 2 m-cu always present in the forewings and Rs, M and Cu in the hind wings. These new fossil ephialtitids have well-preserved propodeal-metasomal articulations indicating metasoma is broadly attached to propodeum.

Conclusion

The broad articulation between the propodeum and metasoma in basal Ephialtitidae, likely passed on from a still more basal family Karatavitidae, suggests three separate pathways of the transformation of the “wasp waist” in three different derived lineages leading from Ephialtitidae to: (i) Kuafuidae and further to the remaining Apocrita, (ii) Stephanidae, and (iii) Evanioidea. In addition, the demise of ephialtitid wasps lagging behind the flourishing of angiosperms suggests that ephialtitid extinction might have been mainly driven by competition with numerous new taxa (eg. the abundant Cretaceous xylophilous Baissinae and Ichneumonoidea) appeared just before or/and soon after the J/K boundary.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Li et al.; licensee BioMed Central.

【 图 表 】

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