Identity of the insect larva described by Zippel et al. (2022) in the mid–Cretaceous Burmese (Kachin) amber (Hymenoptera, Tenthredinoidea, Blasticotomidae = Xyelotomidae, syn. nov.)

Abstract

The fossil in consideration, a small insect larva some 4 mm long, has been described, illustrated and left unnamed by Zippel et al. (2022) as a larva of the beetle family Mordellidae. The same year it was re-identified, unnamed as yet, as a sawfly larva of the family Pamphiliidae (Batelka & Engel, 2022). In our opinion, re-interpretation of the fossil by the latter authors was only partially correct. It demonstrates diagnostic characters of a sawfly larva, but the family attribution of the larva to Pamphiliidae is questionable: in our opinion it is most similar to larval Blasticotomidae (Tenthredinoidea).