Mirabythus Cai, Shih et Ren

Cai, Yaping, Zhao, Yunyun, Shih, Chungkun & Ren, Dong, 2012, A new genus of Scolebythidae (Hymenoptera: Chrysidoidea) from the Early Cretaceous of China, Zootaxa 3504, pp. 56-66 : 58

Genus Mirabythus Cai, Shih et Ren , gen. nov.

Type species Mirabythus lechrius Cai, Shih et Ren , sp. nov., designated here.

Etymology. The generic name is a combination of mira – (Greek, meaning “special”) and – bythus (root of the type genus for the family, Scolebythus ).

Diagnosis. Medium-sized wasps, head nearly rounded. Frontal prominence absent, clypeus short, conspicuously transverse. Eyes small or moderate size, ocellar triangle obtuse, surpassing upper tangent of compound eyes. Mandible short and broad with notches on the anterior margin. Occipital carina present. Pronotal collar absent, dorsal surface of pronotum shortened. Propleura well developed, anteriorly forming a short neck. Notauli present. Prosternum large, exposed, diamond-shaped. Parapsidal lines absent. Mesoscutum separated from mesoscutellum by a straight transverse furrow. Mesosternal region large, separated by a longitudinal groove. Metanotum very short. Propodeum with median longitudinal groove extending from anterior margin to near posterior rim. Metasoma with six exposed sternites and seven exposed tergites. Fore wing cells 1Cu, 2Cu, R, 1M, 2R1, and 1R1 closed; cell 1R1 not enlarged, shorter in length than cell 2R1, nearly equal to cell 1M; R1 present and fusing with Rs apically; pterostigma relatively small, slightly convex on costal margin; r-m crossvein present, nebular; 2cu-a crossvein present, nebular; Cu vein present beyond 2cu-a crossvein.

The new genus is assigned to Scolebythidae due to the following characters: enlarged and exposed diamondshaped prosternum and posteriorly produced fore coxae bearing trochanters laterally. These are unique apomorphies of this family.

The characters that crossvein r-m present and notches on the anterior margin of mandible are different from those of all other genera of Scolebythidae . Furthermore, vein R1 of fore wing present, fusing with Rs apically differentiates Mirabythus gen. nov. from other genera except for three extant genera Ycaploca Nagy , Scolebythus Evans , and Clystopsenella Kieffer in the family of Scolebythidae , but the characters that cell 1R1 short, not longer than cell 1M in length, Cu vein present beyond crossvein 2cu-a are different from these three extant genera. Besides, Mirabythus gen. nov. differs from Ycaploca by the characters that cell 1R1 not enlarged, shorter in length than cell 2R1, frontal prominence absent, ocellar triangle obtuse, parapsidal line absent; from Scolebythus by the characters that median ocellus apparently surpassing upper tangent of compound eyes, parapsidal lines absent; and from Clystopsenella by the characters that occipital carina present, apex of cell 2R1 not arching away from anterior margin of fore wing; abdomen robust, the fifth sternite not swollen posteriorly.

Species included. Type species and Mirabythus liae sp. nov.