Dipterommatidae fam. nov., a new family of parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera: Mymarommatoidea) in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber: the first case of morphological dipterigy in flying Hymenoptera

Dipteromma paradoxa gen. et sp. nov., figures and image stacksImage stacks of the holotype specimen of fossil Hymenoptera, Dipteromma paradoxa gen. et sp. nov.Dipterommatidae, a new family of parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera: Mymarommatoidea) in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber: The first case of morphological diptery in flying HymenopteraRasnitsyn et al 2019Files are 2x downscaled and compressed to save on storage space.Small-sized hymenopterans are important components of modern ecosystems, where they act as egg parasites and hyperparasites of small herbivorous arthropods (e.g., aphids, scale insects). Mymarommatoidea are among the smallest hymenopterans and their actively flying adults have four wings like all known members of the order Hymenoptera. Mymarommatoids were first described as fossils, and although their extant 12 species are distributed worldwide, little is known about their biology. They seem to be absent from the tropics presently, and only two species in two families of Mymarommatoidea are known from the tropical mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. Here we describe a new family, Dipterommatidae fam. nov., the fourth in Mymarommatoidea, with a single genus and species <i>Dipteromma paradoxa </i>gen. sp. nov., based on a female from the same source. The fossil is unique in the superfamily and in the whole order Hymenoptera in totally lacking hindwings. Complete loss of the hindwings in an actively flying insect is rare. Among the few examples is a bloodsucking mecopteran <i>Parapolycentropus</i>, another bizarre endemic taxon of the rich mid-Cretaceous Burmese biota.<br><br>