Proterosceliopsis Explained

Proterosceliopsis is an extinct genus of platygastroid parasitic wasp, known from the Mid-Cretaceous of Eurasia. The genus was first described in 2014 from the Albian amber of the Escucha Formation.^[1] In 2019 additional species were described from the Cenomanian-age Burmese amber, and was placed into the monotypic family Proterosceliopsidae.^[2]

Taxonomy

In the initial 2014 description, the genus was placed in the Scelionidae. However, traditional Scelionidae was found to be polyphyletic in a 2007 study,^[3] which recovered a "main scelionid clade" as monophyletic. In the 2019 study describing the Burmese amber species, it was found to exhibit a unique combination of characters placing it outside both the modified Scelionidae and Platygastridae, thus causing it to be placed in a new family within Platygastroidea.

Species

• Proterosceliopsis ambulata Talamas et al. 2019 Burmese amber
• Proterosceliopsis masneri Ortega-Blanco et al. 2014 Spanish amber
• Proterosceliopsis nigon Talamas et al. 2019 Burmese amber
• Proterosceliopsis plurima Talamas et al. 2019 Burmese amber
• Proterosceliopsis torquata Talamas et al. 2019 Burmese amber
• Proterosceliopsis wingerathi Talamas et al. 2019 Burmese amber

Notes and References

1. Ortega-Blanco. J.. McKellar. R.C.. Engel. M.S.. 2014-06-09. Diverse scelionid wasps in Early Cretaceous amber from Spain (Hymenoptera: Platygastroidea). Bulletin of Geosciences. 553–571. 10.3140/bull.geosci.1463. 1802-8225. free.
2. Talamas. Elijah J.. Johnson. Norman F.. Shih. Chungkun. Ren. Dong. 2019-11-18. Proterosceliopsidae: A new family of Platygastroidea from Cretaceous amber. Journal of Hymenoptera Research. 73. 3–38. 10.3897/jhr.73.32256. 1314-2607. free.
3. Murphy. Nicholas P.. Carey. Danielle. Castro. Lyda R.. Dowton. Mark. Austin. Andrew D.. 2007-08-06. Phylogeny of the platygastroid wasps (Hymenoptera) based on sequences from the 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA and cytochrome oxidase I genes: implications for the evolution of the ovipositor system and host relationships: PHYLOGENY OF THE PLATYGASTROID WASPS. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. en. 91. 4. 653–669. 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2007.00825.x. free.