Incrementing the diversity of fossil vespid wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) and clarifying the limits of Burmese amber taxa

Abstract

Summary The past diversity of vespid wasps is relatively poorly documented. Many early-diverging fossil subfamilies are only represented today by a single or a few species. Therefore, the delineations of these clades and the early evolutionary history of the family remain difficult to decipher and require additional fossil occurrences. Here, a new genus and a new species of vespid are described and illustrated from Burmese amber as Vespatula condaminei n. gen., n. sp., and placed in a new subfamily Vespatulinae n. subfam. This description provides significant morphological evidence to discuss the limits of the Priorvespinae and of the genus Alivespa, leading to its transfer into the Vespatulinae n. subfam. The placement of the recently described genus Archaeovespa is briefly discussed. The phylogenetic value of the clustered secondary hamuli recorded in the new genus is put into perspective with respect to the rest of the Vespoidea and discussed in light of recent phylogenomic analyses.