''Deinodryinus velteni'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of '' Deinodryinus'' in the

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. ...

family

Dryinidae Dryinidae is a cosmopolitan family of solitary wasps. Its name comes from the Greek ''drys'' for oak: Latreille named the type genus ''Dryinus'' because the first species was collected in an oak plant in Spain. The larvae are parasitoids of the ...

. The species is known solely from an

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

fossil found in the

Baltic region The terms Baltic Sea Region, Baltic Rim countries (or simply the Baltic Rim), and the Baltic Sea countries/states refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea, mainly in Northern Europe. ...

History and classification

''Deinodryinus velteni'' is known only from a single fossil, the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

, an unnumbered specimen which is housed in the Paläontologie–Sektion Bernstein of the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The specimen is a fully complete adult female wasp. The specimen is preserved as an

inclusion Inclusion or Include may refer to: Sociology * Social inclusion, aims to create an environment that supports equal opportunity for individuals and groups that form a society. ** Inclusion (disability rights), promotion of people with disabiliti ...

in a transparent chunk of amber. The amber dates to between forty and forty-five million years old, and, being

Baltic amber The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposit of amber, called Baltic amber or succinite. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that these forests created more than ...

that has been redistributed by the sea, a more specific type location than the Baltic region is not possible to identify. ''Deinodryinus velteni'' was first studied by paleoentomologists Adalgisa Guglielmino and Massimo Olmi, both of the

University of Tuscia University of Tuscia ( it, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, UNITUS) is a university located in Viterbo, Italy. It was founded in 1979 and comprises 6 faculties. On 26 February 2019, the President of Republic Sergio Mattarella inaugurated th ...

. Guglielmino and Olmi's 2011

type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...

of the new species was published in the online journal ''

ZooKeys ''ZooKeys'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering zoological taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography. It was established in 2008 and the editor-in-chief is Terry Erwin (Smithsonian Institution). It is published by Pensoft P ...

''. The specific epithet ''velteni'' is in honor of Jürgen Velten who loaned the authors specimens that they studied. ''D. velteni'' is the most recent of three ''Deinodryinus'' species to be described from the fossil record: '' Deinodryinus areolatus'' is also known from a fossil preserved in

, while '' Deinodryinus? aptianus'' is known only from a Mongolian

compression fossil A compression fossil is a fossil preserved in sedimentary rock that has undergone physical compression. While it is uncommon to find animals preserved as good compression fossils, it is very common to find plants preserved this way. The reason f ...

in marl.

Description

The holotype specimen is a complete adult female with an overall coloration that is brown to black, except the

palpi Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the second pair of appendages of chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") and ...

, which are a dull brick red. The female is in length, with antennae that are approximately three times the length of the head and macropterous

forewings 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 ...

. The antennae are composed of ten segments, densely hairy, and distinctly club-shaped (clavate) in structure. The

have three cells at the base that are formed by pigmented veins. The forewings have a pterostigma which is approximately five times as long as it is wide, and a stigmal vein that is not "S" shaped. Both the fore and hind wings are uniformly slightly darkened, rather than the glassy hyaline seen in the other two described fossil species of ''Deinodryinus''. The length of the stigmal vein is used to separate ''D. areolatus'' and ''D. velteni'', with the distal portion of the vein being much longer than the proximal portion in ''D. velteni'' as opposed to ''D. areolatus'' where the two portions are approximately the same length.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5252477 Dryinidae Eocene insects Fossil taxa described in 2011 Prehistoric insects of Europe Hymenoptera of Europe Natural history of Europe Baltic amber