''Myanmymar'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

fairyfly The Mymaridae, commonly known as fairyflies or fairy wasps, are a family (biology), family of chalcid wasp, chalcidoid wasps found in temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions throughout the world. The family contains around 100 genera with 1, ...

preserved in

Burmese amber Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. Th ...

from

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. It has only one

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

, ''Myanmymar aresconoides''. It is dated to the earliest part of the

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy's (ICS) geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Cretace ...

stage of the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

, around 99 million years old. As of 2011, it is the oldest known fossil mymarid.

Discovery and geologic time range

''Myanmymar aresconoides'' was described by John T. Huber and

George Poinar Jr. George O. Poinar Jr. (born April 25, 1936) is an American entomologist and writer. He is known for popularizing the idea of extracting DNA from insects fossilized in amber, an idea which received widespread attention when adapted by Michael Crich ...

from a specimen of a female embedded in

Burmese Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese (horse), a ...

amber. The amber was recovered in 2001 from the Noije Bum 2001 Summit Site, a fossil amber mine in

Hukawng Valley The Hukawng Valley (; also spelt Hukaung Valley) is an isolated valley in Myanmar, roughly in area. It is located in Tanaing Township in the Myitkyina District of Kachin State in the northernmost part of the country. It has the Hukaung Valley ...

Kachin State Kachin State (; Jingpho language, Kachin: ) is the northernmost administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east (Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet and Yunnan, respectively), Shan State to the sou ...

of Myanmar. The site is dated to the

Albian The Albian is both an age (geology), age of the geologic timescale and a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early/Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch/s ...

(97 to 110 million years ago) of the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

epoch. As of 2011, this makes ''Myanmymar aresconoides'' the oldest known fossil mymarid recovered.

Taxonomy

''Myanmymar aresconoides'' is the only species belonging to the genus ''Myanmymar''. It belongs to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of fairyflies

Mymaridae The Mymaridae, commonly known as fairyflies or fairy wasps, are a family (biology), family of chalcid wasp, chalcidoid wasps found in temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions throughout the world. The family contains around 100 genera with 1, ...

of the

chalcid wasp Chalcid wasps (, , for their metallic colour) are insects within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, part of the order Hymenoptera. The superfamily contains some 22,500 known species, and an estimated total diversity of more than 500,000 species, m ...

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Chalcidoidea Chalcid wasps (, , for their metallic colour) are insects within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, part of the order Hymenoptera. The superfamily contains some 22,500 known species, and an estimated total diversity of more than 500,000 species, m ...

. The generic name ''Myanmymar'' is derived from a

euphonious Phonaesthetics (also spelled phonesthetics in North America) is the study of the beauty and pleasantness associated with the sounds of certain words or parts of words. The term was first used in this sense, perhaps by during the mid-20th century ...

combination of "Myanmar" and

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

μῶμος (''mōmos'', "spot" or "blot"). The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

means "resembling ''

Arescon ''Arescon'' is a genus of fairyflies. It contains the following species: * '' Arescon aspidioticola'' (Ashmead, 1879) * '' Arescon clarkei'' Doutt, 1955 * '' Arescon chuk'' S.V. Triapitsyn, 2016 * '' Arescon confusus'' S.V. Triapitsyn, 2016 * ...

''", from ''Arescon'' (an

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

genus of fairyfly) and Greek -εἶδος (''eidos'', "like", "resembling").

Description

Like other fairyflies, ''M. aresconoides'' is a tiny

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...

. The entire body length of the specimen is about half a

millimeter 330px, Different lengths as in respect of the electromagnetic spectrum, measured by the metre and its derived scales. The microwave is between 1 metre to 1 millimetre. The millimetre (American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, i ...

, . The head measures about and have moderately sized eyes. The antennae have eight segments in the funicle and two on club-like tip (clava). The

maxillary palp Maxillary means "related to the maxilla (upper jaw bone)". Terms containing "maxillary" include: *Maxillary artery *Maxillary nerve *Maxillary prominence *Maxillary sinus The pyramid-shaped maxillary sinus (or antrum of Nathaniel Highmore (sur ...

s have three segments. The

mesosoma The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings. Wasps, bees and a ...

(middle part of the body) is long. It has narrow

forewing Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwi ...

s, with wing venation extending up to two-thirds of the length and a rounded lobe at the base. On the margins are numerous long bristle-like projections (marginal setae), the longest of which is about twice the greatest width of the wing. The

hindwing Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindw ...

s are also narrow with parallel sides. Their marginal setae are about seven times the width of the wing. Both wings do not possess

microtrichia Insect morphology is the study and description of the morphology (biology), physical form of insects. The terminology used to describe insects is similar to that used for other arthropods due to their shared evolutionary history. Three physical f ...

(small irregularly scattered hairs), except for two sparse rows beyond the venation of the forewings. The legs have long tarsi with five segments. The

tibia The tibia (; : tibiae or tibias), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two Leg bones, bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outsi ...

is not clearly visible but is assumed to be about the same length as the tarsi. The

metasoma The metasoma is the posterior part of the body, or tagma (biology), tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the mesosoma. In insects, it contains most of the digestive tract, respiratory sy ...

is longer than the mesosoma, at . The

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typica ...

is long, with the sheath slightly extending over the tip of the metasoma. As the specific name suggests, ''M. aresconoides'' is very similar to the extant genus ''Arescon'' in wing shape and venation. Only three other modern mymarid genera ('' Boudiennyia'', '' Eustochomorpha'', and '' Borneomymar'') share all the ''M. aresconoides'' characteristics of having forewing venation longer than half the wing length, five segments on the tarsi, and eight segments on the funicles. ''M. aresconoides'' is also unique among fairyflies in having three distinct segments on the palpi. In contrast, all modern mymarids have unsegmented palpi. Another specimen of a possible male of the species was also discovered. It is long, with a head wide. However, it is impossible to ascertain if they belong to the same species due to the poor condition of the second specimen.

References

External links

*
Myanmymar aresconoides
' on Species-ID {{Taxonbar, from=Q6946792 Mymaridae Monotypic Hymenoptera genera Cretaceous insects Cretaceous insects of Asia Fossil taxa described in 2011 Burmese amber Fossils of Myanmar Monotypic prehistoric insect genera

Discovery and geologic time range

Taxonomy

Description

See also

References

External links