A putative twisted-wing parasitoid planidium (Insecta: Strepsiptera) in Taimyr Upper Cretaceous amber

Abstract

Please cite this article as: Kathirithamby, J., Perkovsky, E.E., Falin, Z.H., Engel, M.S., A putative twistedwing parasitoid planidium (Insecta: Strepsiptera) in Taimyr Upper Cretaceous amber, Cretaceous Research (2016),

Highly specialized Cretaceous beetle parasitoids (Ripiphoridae) identified with optimized visualization of microstructures

“…A controversial topic is the systematic position of Cretaceous conicocephalate larvae from Myanmar, Canada and Russia. They are attributed either to Strepsiptera (Grimaldi et al ., , Kathirithamby et al ., ) or to Ripiphoridae (Beutel et al ., ). Arguments for each conclusion will not be repeated here, but we will rather direct the attention to one neglected character, to underline the inherent problems of the systematic placement of these extinct immature insects.…”

“…The proposed term constitutes complementary labelling to the term ‘conicocephalate’ larvae introduced for another Cretaceous larval morphotype by Kathirithamby et al . (). Both terms allow the immediate orientation of researchers and serve as replacements for scientific binomens for fossil larvae, as used in some other cases (e.g.…”

“…With respect to the morphology of these listed genera, we stayed with the respective reference, unless otherwise stated. Fossil conicocephalate larva from Taimyr (Kathirithamby et al ., ), Myanmar (Beutel et al ., ) and Manitoba (Grimaldi et al ., ) were compared with the present longipedes larvae in available structural details. Larvae of Meloidae are discussed based on studies of Pinto et al .…”

“…Pohl, ; Fikáček et al ., ). We do not follow the designation of fossil larvae by binomenal names, instead we follow the practice of authors who dealt with these instars previously (Grimaldi et al ., ; Beutel et al ., ; Kathirithamby et al ., ), thus avoiding the undesirable usage of two parallel binominal systems for larvae and adults, without the option of synonymization. The only disadvantage of this approach is that such organisms without formal description are usually neglected by authors of taxonomic catalogues.…”

“…Cretaceous larvae are of particular interest as their morphology could shed light on the early evolutionary history of the respective clades. Larvae discovered in various World amber deposits have been primary larvae generally attributed to either the parasitic Strepsiptera (Grimaldi et al ., ; Kathirithamby et al ., ) or to parasitoid beetles of the family Ripiphoridae with first instars of similar habitus (Grimaldi et al ., ; Beutel et al ., ). However, none of the descriptions of these Cretaceous larvae provided so far allows a precise analysis of phylogenetically important details and a subsequent confidential systematic placement.…”