Compression fossil Mymaridae (Hymenoptera) from Kishenehn oil shales, with description of two new genera and review of Tertiary amber genera

Abstract

Compression fossils of three genera and six species of Mymaridae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) are described from 46 million year old Kishenehn oil shales in Montana, USA. Two new genera are described: Eoeustochus Huber, gen. n., with two included species, Eoeustochus kishenehn Huber (type species) and Eoeustochus borchersi Huber, sp. n., and Eoanaphes, gen. n., with Eoanaphes stethynioides Huber, sp. n. Three new species of Gonatocerus are also described, Gonatocerus greenwalti Huber, sp. n. , Gonatocerus kootenai Huber, sp. n., and Gonatocerus rasnitsyni Huber, sp. n. Previously described amber fossil genera are discussed and five genera in Baltic amber are tentatively recorded as fossils: Anagroidea, Camptoptera, Dorya, Eustochus, and Mimalaptus.

A fossil species of the primitive mymarid genus <i>Borneomymar</i> (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) in Eocene Baltic amber

“…Huber & Greenwalt (2011) and Poinar & Huber (2011) reviewed the fossil taxa and illustrated the five known Cretaceous genera. Huber (2002) discussed extant taxa purported to occupy relatively basal positions within the family and proposed a hypothesis of their early diversification.…”

Diptera of the middle Eocene Kishenehn Formation. I. Documentation of diversity at the family level

“…Taphonomic processes have produced a unique entomofauna, with a strong size bias against large specimens; fossil insects 1 cm or longer in length are rare and, with the exception of isolated wings, invariably poorly preserved. On the other hand, very small insects (e.g., ptiliid beetles and mymarid wasps) that are rarely found as compression fossils in other Lagerstätten, are frequently preserved in the Kishenehn Formation's oil shales (Huber and Greenwalt, 2011;Shockley and Greenwalt, 2013;Greenwalt et al, 2015a). As a result, the Coal Creek Member entomofauna provides insights into insect diversity that are not available from other major North American Lagerstätten.…”

Ptenidium kishenehnicum(Coleoptera: Ptiliidae), a New Fossil Described from the Kishenehn Oil Shales, with a Checklist of Previously Known Fossil Ptiliids

“…For example, six new species of Mymaridae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea), the first ever to be described from compression fossils, were recently described from the Kishenehn Formation (Huber and Greenwalt 2011).…”