New flat wasps from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber deposits highlight the bethylid antiquity and paleobiogeography (Hymenoptera: Chrysidoidea)

Abstract Examination of Hkamti and Tanai Burmese ambers reveals two new genera and species of †Lancepyrinae: Protopyris myanmarensis Jouault & Nel gen. et sp. nov. and Burmapyris azevedoi Jouault, Perrichot & Nel gen. et sp. nov. Protopyris Jouault & Nel gen. nov. is the first Bethylidae described from amber of the Hkamti deposit (lower Albian, mid-Cretaceous) in Myanmar. These specimens provide useful clues to understand the paleobiogeographic evolution of the †Lancepyrinae, since they are only predated by genera described from Lebanese and Spanish amber. These new taxa suggest a major paleobiogeographic scenario, since Burmese amber was probably produced on an island that separated from Gondwana during the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. It thus suggests a possible earlier origin for the †Lancepyrinae, and thereby for the Bethylidae, in the Late Jurassic to earliest Cretaceous.