Baeomorphidae

Baeomorphidae
Temporal range: Cenomanian–Recent
Baeomorpha liorum Male
Baeomorpha liorum Female
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Superfamily: Chalcidoidea
Family: Baeomorphidae
Yoshimoto, 1975
Genera and species
Synonyms

Rotoitidae Bouček & Noyes, 1987

The Baeomorphidae (formerly known as Rotoitidae[1]), are a very small family of rare, relictual parasitic wasps in the superfamily Chalcidoidea, known primarily from fossils (14 extinct species in two genera, Baeomorpha and Taimyromorpha).[2] Only two extant species are known, each in its own genus, one from New Zealand and one from Chile, and little is known about their biology, though there is suspicion that they are parasitoids of the relictual true bug family Peloridiidae.[3]

Females of the Chilean species, Chiloe micropteron, have their wings reduced to tiny bristles. Most fossil species are known from the Late Cretaceous (Santonian) Taimyr amber of Russia and Late Cretaceous (Campanian) Canadian amber,[4] but one species, Baeomorpha liorum is known from the mid Cretaceous (late Albian-earliest Cenomanian) Burmese amber.[2]

Baeomorphids are very close to the base of the chalcidoid family tree, presently considered to be the first "branch" taxon after the Mymaridae.[2]

  1. ^ Universal Chalcidoid Database
  2. ^ a b c Huber JT, Shih C, Dong R (2019) A new species of Baeomorpha (Hymenoptera, Rotoitidae) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 72: 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.72.35502
  3. ^ Chalcid.org
  4. ^ Gumovsky, Alex; Perkovsky, Evgeny; Rasnitsyn, Alexandr (April 2018). "Laurasian ancestors and "Gondwanan" descendants of Rotoitidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea): What a review of Late Cretaceous Baeomorpha revealed". Cretaceous Research. 84: 286–322. Bibcode:2018CrRes..84..286G. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2017.10.027. ISSN 0195-6671.