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Baltic amber Ibaliidae (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea): a new genus with implications for the phylogeny and historical biogeography of the family
Author(s) -
LIU ZHIWEI,
ENGEL MICHAEL S.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
systematic entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.552
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1365-3113
pISSN - 0307-6970
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3113.2009.00494.x
Subject(s) - biology , baltic amber , subfamily , biogeography , genus , hymenoptera , zoology , sister group , parasitoid , ecology , paleontology , phylogenetics , clade , biochemistry , gene
. The first definitive ibaliid wasp (Cynipoidea: Ibaliidae) is described and illustrated from a female preserved in middle Eocene (Lutetian) Baltic amber. Archaeibalia succinica Liu & Engel gen. et sp.n. is distinct from all other members of the family, cladistically placed as sister to all other Ibaliidae, and classified in its own subfamily, Archaeibaliinae Liu & Engel subfam.n. The genus was putatively a parasitoid of wood‐boring insects in hardwood trees. Given that the species is exceptionally rare in Baltic amber (a single individual) despite a habitat that would have placed it in immediate proximity with resin flows, the host of A . succinica was probably not living in the ‘Baltic amber tree’. The historical biogeography and evolution of ibaliids is reconsidered based on the present paleontological evidence.