New ripiphorid beetles in mid-Cretaceous amber from Myanmar (Coleoptera: Ripiphoridae): First Pelecotominae and possible Mesozoic aggregative behaviour in male Ripidiinae

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

“…Our results reveal that these setae, which are probably not antennae, are inserted close to the base of the mandibles, hidden below the clypeolabral region in the frontal half of the head. Considering Ripiphoridae as a potential candidate for a placement of these larvae, we may readily exclude Pelecotominae (albeit known from Burmese amber; Batelka et al ., ). Even though the larval antennae in Pelecotominae are also inserted close to the mandibular base, their shape and the general configuration of the body are very different from the invasive first instars of Ripiphorinae and Ripidiinae, which show the greatest similarity to the Cretaceous longipedes larvae.…”

“…This includes, for instance, the absence of antennae and eyes, prolonged tibio‐tarsi, and the presence of prosternoctenidium. Ripidiinae are represented in Cretaceous Burmese amber by the genera Amberocula Batelka, Engel et Prokop and Cretaceoripidius Falin et Engel, which are similar to some extant members of the tribe Ripidiini, and the genera Paleoripiphorus Perrichot, Nel, et Néraudeau, (French amber) (Batelka et al ., , ) and Protoripidius Cai, Yin et Huang (Burmese amber) of uncertain generic affinities. It will probably be impossible in the near future to assign the longipedes larvae to one of these genera or to another, yet undescribed genus.…”

“…With 22 (or 23) genera, it represents almost half of 46 currently valid extant and extinct genera (see File S1). Moreover, Ripidiinae displays remarkable morphological and sexual variability among genera (Lawrence et al ., ), and its representatives are quite common in the fossil record (Batelka et al ., , ). However, of this known diversity, only descriptions of primary larvae of Blattivorus and Ripidius are available for comparison.…”

New dustywings (Neuroptera, Coniopterygidae) from mid-Cretaceous amber of Myanmar reveal spectacular diversity

“…The record from this locality has recently been reviewed by Grimaldi and Ross (2017). Contemporary investigations on various insect lineages has emphasized the tremendous diversity and disparity of the entomofauna (e.g., Grimaldi and Ross 2017), as well as its impact on an understanding of changes in Late Cretaceous biotas along with the Late Cretaceous-Paleogene faunal turnover, such as replacement by specialized angiosperm pollinators and evidence of remarkable parasitoid strategies (e.g., Grimaldi et al 2002; Batelka et al 2016, 2018, in press; Huang et al 2016; Makarkin 2016).…”

The first fossil wedge-shaped beetle (Coleoptera, Ripiphoridae) from the middle Jurassic of China

“…Mesozoic taxa include two species from the Burmese amber (upper Cretaceous) and two from French Albo-Cenomanian ambers (mid Cretaceous) (Cockerell 1917;Perrichot et al 2004;Falin & Engel 2010;Batelka et al 2016b). In the present paper, we describe a new genus and species of Ripiphoridae based on an individual preserved in the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Daohugou, which is composed of grey tuffaceous sandstone and sandy mudstone; the paleoenvironment is considered to have been a volcanic region with mountain streams and lakes (Ren & Krzeminski 2002).…”