Hymenoptera (wasps, bees and ants) in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber: A review of the fauna

Abstract The Burmese amber assemblage of Hymenoptera with its 47 constituent families is now the richest in Cretaceous. A collection of Burmite (Burmese amber) from the Hukawng Valley, Myanmar at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences was examined, revealing that Burmite inclusions contain a very highly diverse hymenopteran fauna with as many as ten families found new for the Burmese fossil assemblage. The mid-Cretaceous hymenopteran fauna of Burmese amber is revised at the family level. A high level of the first family occurrences and endemism is demonstrated suggestive of an insular syndrome affected the mid-Cretaceous Burmese biome, as well as somewhat contradictory features in composition of the hymenopteran families there.