A new compression fossil, Eotriadomeroides abjunctus Huber, gen. & sp. nov. (Hymenoptera, Mymaridae), in Eocene shale from the Kishenehn Formation, USA
Author
Huber, John T.
Natural Resources Canada c / o Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, K. W. Neatby Building, 960 Carling Ave., Ottawa, ON, K 1 A 0 C 6, Canada
john.huber2@agr.gc.ca
Author
Greenwalt, Dale E.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9811-6356
Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, MRC 121, Smithsonian Institution, 10
text
Journal of Hymenoptera Research
2023
2023-08-15
96
657
666
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.96.107379
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.96.107379
1314-2607-96-657
D3EF3F05918541B9A5241CAC7B9C2D6B
CAEADD31A8F759C8AE7E2DE2C2DDE95F
Eotriadomeroides Huber
gen. nov.
Figs 1-2
, 3-5
, 6, 7
, 8
Type species.
Eotriadomeroides abjunctus
Huber, here designated.
Diagnosis.
Female.
Antenna with funicle 8-segmented and clava 1-segmented (Figs
2
-
5
); fore wing with venation extending almost to wing apex, with postmarginal vein as wide as marginal vein or parastigma and ~2.7
x
as long as parastigma + marginal + stigmal veins (Fig.
7
); tarsi 5-segmented (Fig.
8
); fore wing microtrichia apparently extending to base of parastigma; hind wing relatively narrow, with acute apex; ovipositor extending ventral to mesosoma almost to level of head and not exserted posterior to apex of gaster (Fig.
1
). Other details are apparently the same as for
Neotriadomerus
Huber, morphologically the genus most similar to
Eotriadomeroides
.
Figures 1, 2.
Eotriadomeroides abjunctus
Huber, holotype female
1
habitus (except most legs not visible)
2
pronotum + head + partly disarticulated antennae.
Figures 3-5.
Eotriadomeroides abjunctus
Huber, holotype female
3
head + part of antennae
4
left antenna (pedicel-fu5)
5
fu8 + clava of both antennae.
Figures 6, 7.
Eotriadomeroides abjunctus
Huber, holotype female
6
mesosoma
7
wings + metasoma.
Figures 8, 9.
Eotriadomeroides abjunctus
Huber, holotype female
8
tibiae and tarsi of one? pair of legs
9
shale piece containing holotype (circled) of
Eotriadomeroides abjunctus
Huber.
Male.
Unknown.
Derivation of genus name.
From the Greek,
eos
, meaning early +
Triadomerus
(a compound word derived from Greek,
tries
, meaning three, and
meros
, meaning part, referring to the 3-segmented clava) + the suffix -
oides
, meaning like, resembling.
Eotriadomeroides
(gender masculine) is therefore an "early
Triadomerus
-like" genus, referring to its geological age (the Eocene) and morphological similarity to the two other, evidently related genera:
Neotriadomerus
(with all its species extant) and
Triadomerus
(with its single species extinct).
Relationships.
Genera of
Mymaridae
are usually divided formally into subgenera if females of different species within a given genus have either a 1- or 2-segmented clava, or either a 2- or 3-segmented clava, and the other morphological features are essentially identical. So far, no genus is known to have its included species with either a 1-segmented or a 3-segmented clava but none with a 2-segmented clava. Only one genus (
Anaphes
Haliday) possibly has its included species with a 1-, 2-, or 3-segmented clava but so far
Anaphes
species with 3-segmented clava have yet been described and named. Examination of the clava of
Eotriadomeroides
does not suggest it is 2- or 3-segmented but rather that it is clearly 1-segmented, i.e., entire (Fig.
5
). For comparison, the species of
Eoanaphes
Huber and
Eoeustochus
Huber from the same formation and apparently with the same quality of preservation, are clearly 3-segmented whereas those of
Gonatocerus
Nees are just as clearly 1-segmented (
Huber and Greenwalt 2011
). If the clava of
E. abjunctus
were 2- or 3-segmented then it could be classified as a subgenus of
Neotriadomerus
, given that all other features, except relative lengths of postmarginal vein to the rest of the venation, are almost the same in both taxa.
Eotriadomeroides
would then key to
Neotriadomerus
in the key to Cretaceous genera of
Mymaridae
(
Poinar and Huber 2011
). Another possibility would be to treat
E. abjunctus
as a subgenus within
Triadomerus
Yoshimoto, described from amber from Cedar Lake, Manitoba (
Yoshimoto 1975
), which is only about 1000 km away from the type locality (the Kishenehn Basin, Montana) of
E. abjunctus
. According to
McAlpine and Martin (1969)
the actual source of the Cedar Lake amber is more likely to be upstream, along the Saskatoon River either near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, or Medicine Hat, Alberta, respectively about 650 km and ~280 km from the type locality of
E. abjunctus
as determined from the present day configuration of the localities (essentially unchanged from 46 my years ago).
Triadomerus
does not have the ovipositor extending anteriorly ventral to the mesosoma and it has a relatively short postmarginal vein compared to length of stigma + marginal + parastigmal veins, so we treat
E. abjunctus
as belonging to a new genus, different from both
Neotriadomerus
and
Triadomerus
, both of which have a 3-segmented female clava and are known, respectively, from seven extant and one extinct species.
Eotriadomeroides
is best classified in
Triadomerini
(
Huber 2017
) but exact relationships among the genera still need resolution.