Cretabythinae, Brazidec & Legendre & Perrichot, 2023

Brazidec, Manuel, Legendre, Frederic & Perrichot, Vincent, 2023, Diversity and phylogeny of the extinct wasp subfamily Lancepyrinae (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) revealed by mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, Arthropod Systematics & amp; Phylogeny 81, pp. 345-369 : 345

Subfamily Cretabythinae subfam. nov.

Type genus.

Cretabythus Evans, 1973.

Diagnosis.

Small to mid-sized wasps (body length 2.5-7 mm); body not particularly pubescent; head prognathous; frons flat; compound eyes developed; antenna with 13 antennomeres; maxillary palpus with six palpomeres; median clypeal lobe short, not projecting; occipital carina present; dorsal pronotal area wider than long; propleuron more or less developed; prosternum concealed, nearly obscured by procoxae and propleura; anteromesoscutum with notaulus and parapsidal signum present; mesoscutellum posteriorly rounded; metanotum developed, separating mesoscutellum from metapectal-propodeal complex; metapectal-propodeal complex not elongate, without posterior spines or projections; both sexes macropterous; tegula present; fore wing with C, Sc+R, M+Cu, A, Rs+M, Rs, R1, basal segments of M and Cu tubular; [C], [R], [1Cu], [1R1], [1M] and [2R1] cells closed; [2Cu] closed in Cretabythus ; hind wing only with C vein present; femora incrassate; tarsal claws slightly arched; metasoma without particular modifications.

Included genera.

Cretabythus Evans, 1973, Holopsenelliscus Engel, 2019, Megalopsenella Jouault et al., 2020.

Stratigraphic extension.

Lower Cenomanian to Santonian, in the deposits of northern Myanmar and Russia (Taimyr).

Remarks.

As no taxonomic treatment has been provided for the leftover genera of the obsolete Holopsenellinae , i.e., Cretabythus Evans, 1973, Megalopsenella Jouault et al., 2020 and Holopsenelliscus , we erect the subfamily Cretabythinae . This decision is backed by our phylogenetic analyses below, where the Cretabythinae are retrieved as monophyletic yet poorly supported. An improvement of the codding and support through a revision of the three genera is strongly needed to clarify the status of the subfamily and to understand it in the modern sense of the Bethylidae . The cretabythines retain the most complete fore wing venation among the Bethylidae as their diagnostic trait, alongside other features listed above.