Two new genera of Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) with reduced ovipositor sheaths

Abstract

Archaeocercoides puchkovi Simutnik, gen. et sp.nov., and Rovnopositor voblenkoi Simutnik, gen. et sp.nov., are described and illustrated based on female specimens from late Eocene Rovno amber. Like most previously described Eocene Encyrtidae, the new taxa differ from the majority of extant encyrtids by the apical or nearly apical position of the cerci, the short radicle, and the long marginal vein of the forewing. Both new genera are characterized by a strongly reduced ovipositor sheaths but long and upwardly bent ovipositor stylets (in the “ovipositing position”), a stigmal vein with a long uncus, and the absence of a filum spinosum. The new genera differ from each other in the width of frontovertex, the location of the cerci, and the lengths of funicular segments and marginal vein. A. puchkovi was fossilized near a Coccoidea crawler.