Notes on Cretaceous amber Braconidae (Hymenoptera), with descriptions of two new genera

Abstract

A new genus and species of basal cyclostome Braconidae is described and figured from a male preserved in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar. Rhetinorhyssalus morticinus Engel, new genus and species, is interesting for its combination of primitive features such as a minute apical costal cell and anal stubs in the forewing, while lacking 2Cu in the hind wing, a putatively derived trait. As such, the genus may represent a lineage diverging from the braconid stem subsequent to many protorhyssalines, while remaining basal relative to generalized cyclostome groups such as Rhyssalinae. In addition, the Late Cretaceous Diospilus allani Brues, in Campanian Canadian amber, is transferred to Diorhyssalus Engel, new genus, and its similarity to Rhetinorhyssalus is discussed. This transfer results in the new combination, Diorhyssalus allani (Brues). Both genera are tentatively considered as subfamily incertae sedis.