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The complete life cycle of a Cretaceous beetle parasitoid.
- Source :
-
Current biology : CB [Curr Biol] 2021 Feb 08; Vol. 31 (3), pp. R118-R119. - Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Life cycles of parasites, particularly those with complex life histories and developmental pathways, are rarely preserved as fossils in total. <superscript>1</superscript> The evidence is almost universally biased toward incomplete perspectives derived from a single sex or life stage. <superscript>2</superscript> <superscript>,</superscript> <superscript>3</superscript> Here, we report a piece of Cretaceous Burmese amber that contains 28 males, a larviform female, and two longipede larvae of the wedge-shaped beetle Paleoripiphorus, and its potential cockroach host. Collectively, this fossil represents the complete series of free-living stages (except of the last larval instar) for a 99-million-year-old parasitoid insect from Myanmar (Figure 1 and Supplemental Information). The wedge-shaped beetles (Ripiphoridae) are of special interest among parasitoids because of their obligatory, protelean development in larvae of cockroaches, beetles, bees and wasps. <superscript>4</superscript> .<br /> (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1879-0445
- Volume :
- 31
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Current biology : CB
- Publication Type :
- Editorial & Opinion
- Accession number :
- 33561406
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.12.007