A.P. Rasnitsyn

Nevaniinae subfam. n., a new fossil taxon (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Evanioidea: Praeaulacidae) from the Middle Jurassic of Daohugou in Inner Mongolia, China,

A new subfamily, Nevaniinae Zhang & Rasnitsyn, subfam. n., is established and assigned to Praeaulacidae (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea). It only comprises one genus, the type Nevania Zhang & Rasnitsyn, gen. n., consisting of six species: N. robusta Zhang & Rasnitsyn, sp. n., N. exquisita Zhang & Rasnitsyn, sp. n., N. malleata Zhang & Rasnitsyn, sp. n., N. ferocula Zhang & Rasnitsyn, sp. n., N. retenta Zhang & Rasnitsyn, sp. n., and N. delicata Zhang & Rasnitsyn, sp. n., from the Middle Jurassic of Daohugou in Inner Mongolia, China. Analyses show that Nevaniinae has a combination of ancestral and derived characters and additionally a few autapomorphies, and probably represents an early clade of the Praeaulacidae, and that the Evanioidea has an ancestor at least as venationally plesiomorphic as basal Ephialtitidae. N. delicata, possessing many more putatively plesiomorphic characters than its congeners, probably occupies the most basal position of the Nevania clade. Characteristics shown by Nevania suggest that these wasps were parasitoids of wood-boring insects.

Pollen morphotypes from the intestine of a Permian booklouse

Abstract Two morphotypes of disaccate taeniate pollen grains Lunatisporites and Protohaploxypinus , and two types of monosaccate pollen grains, Florinites and Potonieisporites are recognized in the organic gut content of a primitive booklouse Parapsocidium uralicum G. Zalessky (Psocidiidae, Psocida) from the Tshekarda locality in the Urals. Details of infrastructure are described for Lunatisporites . Lamellate nexine was not observed in sectioned pollen grain of Protohaploxypinus perfecta . Pollen grains with several to many taeniae are abundant in the gut, whereas other morphotypes are represented by a single grain each. Such proportions are typical for pollinivorous insects from Tshekarda. Parapsocidium has shared its foraging habitat with another pollinivorous insect, Idelopsocus diradiatus Rasnitsyn (Hypoperlida). The latter is considered as a representative of an extinct group ancestral to booklice.

New pollen morphotype from gut compression of a Cretaceous insect, and its bearing on palynomorphological evolution and palaeoecology

Abstract Plant remains from gut compressions of fossil insects are evidence of plant-insect interaction with implications for plant evolution and functional palynomorphology. We obtained pollen grains from compressed intestines of five xyelid species from the Lower Cretaceous Baisa locality, Transbaikalia, each with a single pollen morphotype in the pollen load. Among them, Ceroxyela dolichocera Rasnitsyn was loaded with the bilobed, monosaccate pollen grains Vitimipollis edulis Krassilov. A recently found specimen of the same species yielded a new pollen morphotype, Cryptosacciferites pabularis gen. et sp. nov., with ultrastructural evidence of a residual saccus, demonstrating a transition from saccate to asaccate morphologies. It is also unusual in having a well-developed lamellate apertural endexine as in some basal angiosperms. Although two individuals of Ceroxyela dolichocera studied for pollen load visited different plants, neither of them had mixed loads, which may suggest consecutive, rather than simultaneous, flowering of the source plants.