Paleovespa menatensis, Nel, André & Auvray, Francis, 2006

Nel, André & Auvray, Francis, 2006, The oldest Vespinae from the Paleocene of Menat (France) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), Zootaxa 1344, pp. 59-62 : 60-61

Paleovespa menatensis sp. nov. Nel and Auvray

Figs 1–2

Diagnosis. See the discussion below.

Description. Body not well preserved, 21 mm long, black with wings hyaline; head 4 mm long, 5.5 mm wide; compound eyes 2 mm long, 3 mm apart; clypeus not projecting; mesosoma 7 mm long, 6 mm wide; mesoscutum with lateral longitudinal carina opposite tegula, lacking parategula; notauli and parapsidal furrows not preserved; mid tibia 3 mm long; hind femur 4 mm long, hind tibia 3 mm long, hind tarsus 4 mm long; preserved part of fore wing 14 mm long, 3.5 mm wide; prestigma 0.3 mm long, distinctly shorter than pterostigma (0.6 mm long); first discal cell 6.5 mm long, longer than subbasal cell (4.6 mm long); vein 1cua straight and much shorter than vein 2/1A; cell [1SD] neither narrowed nor projecting apically; metasoma 10 mm long, 7 mm wide; with tergum 1 abruptly narrowed anteriorly, 6 mm wide.

Material. Holotype specimen 21.6, (Auvray coll.), provisionally deposited in the department of Palaeontology, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris.

Etymology. This species is named after the outcrop of Menat in which it was found.

Discussion. Following the key to the recent subfamilies of Brothers and Finnamore (1993), Paleovespa menatensis sp. nov. falls in the Vespidae , and specifically Vespinae due to the following characters: the vein 1cua of the fore wing is straight and much shorter than vein 2/1A; the first discal cell of the fore wing is longer than subbasal cell. This last character is also excluding the Cretaceous subfamily Priovespinae ( Carpenter and Rasnitsyn 1990); the cell [1SD] of the fore wing is neither narrowed nor projecting apically; the prestigma is distinctly shorter than the pterostigma; the mesoscutum has a lateral longitudinal carina opposite tegula; the clypeus is not projecting; the mesoscutum lacks parategula; the metasomal tergum 1 abruptly narrows anteriorly.

Paleovespa menatensis differs from the four recent genera Ve sp a, Provespa Ashmead , Dolichovespula Rohwer , and Ves p ul a Thomson in having its prestigma distinctly shorter than pterostigma ( Carpenter 1987). Other characters currently used in the classification and phylogeny of the vespine genera are not available in our fossil. Nevertheless, this plesiomorphic wing venation character is also present in the Cenozoic genus Palaeovespa ( Poinar 2005) . Thus, we provisionally include P. menatensis in Paleovespa. Palaeovespa comprises seven species, viz. P. baltica Cockerell, 1910 and P. socialis Poinar, 2005 (Baltic amber), P. florissantia Cockerell, 1906 , P. gillettei Cockerell, 1906 , P. scudderi Cockerell, 1906 , P. re l e c t a Cockerell, 1923, and P. wilsoni Cockerell, 1915 (Late Eocene- Early Oligocene, Florissant, Colorado, USA) ( Cockerell 1906, 1915, 1923; Poinar 2005). Paleovespa baltica , P. s o c i a l i s, P. gillettei , P. w i l s o n i, P. re l e c t a, and P. scudderi are much smaller with a shorter fore wing than P. menatensis . Paleovespa florissantia is distinctly longer than P. menatensis .

Until now, the wing venation of the Paleocene and Eocene Vespinae has several plesiomorphic characters not present in more recent genera. This suggests that this subfamily diversified relatively recently during the Late Paleogene, which could be congruent with its apparent absence in the Mesozoic (not yet found).

Figures

FIGURES 1. Paleovespa menatensis sp. n., holotype specimen 21.6, photograph of habitus, scale bar represents 10 mm.

FIGURES 2. Paleovespa menatensis, holotype specimen 21.6, reconstruction of fore wing, scale bar represents 4 mm.