Lower Cretaceous origin of long-distance mate finding behaviour in Hymenoptera (Insecta)

摘要

Flabellate antennae have evolved numerous times in males of several insect groups where they carry olfactory receptor neurons enabling the individuals to locate females over long distances. In Recent Hymenoptera, one of the largest species radiations among the Animalia, flabellate antennae are relatively uncommon. Here we describe Atefia rasnitsyni gen. et sp. nov. from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil, representing the first fossil hymenopteran with a biflabellate antenna. The fossil indicates that long-distance mate finding behaviour in Hymenoptera was already well established in the Lower Cretaceous. The new fossil is taxonomically challenging and shares morphological characters with Recent Pergidae and Diprionidae. However, it lacks definite diagnostic features of either family and is here left unplaced as an early lineage of Tenthredinoidea. The occurrence and structural diversity of flabellate antennae in Recent Tenthredinoidea is discussed in a phylogenetic framework.