''Leptofoenus pittfieldae'' is an extinct species of

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. ...

in the family Pteromalidae. It is known from early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

Burdigalian The Burdigalian is, in the geologic timescale, an age or stage in the early Miocene. It spans the time between 20.43 ± 0.05 Ma and 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). Preceded by the Aquitanian, the Burdigalian was the first and longest w ...

stage

Dominican amber Dominican amber is amber from the Dominican Republic derived from resin of the extinct tree '' Hymenaea protera''. Dominican amber differentiates itself from Baltic amber by being nearly always transparent, and it has a higher number of fossil inc ...

deposits on the island of Hispaniola. The species is known from a single male specimen excavated from the La Toca mine group northeast of

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros (; '' en, Saint James of the Knights''), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the capital of Santiago Prov ...

in 2008 and deposited in the Insect Fossil Collection at the

University of Kansas Natural History Museum The University of Kansas Natural History Museum is part of the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute, a KU designated research center dedicated to the study of the life of the planet. The museum's galleries are in Dyche Hall on the unive ...

in Lawrence, Kansas, where it was studied and described by Dr. Michael S. Engel. The species name ''pittfieldae'' honors Ms. Morgan Pittfield, niece of the specimen donor. ''L. pittfieldae'' is the only member of ''Leptofoenus'' in the fossil record. Despite the large quantities of amber examined from the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

, no additional specimens of ''Leptofoenus pittfieldae'' have been found. This may indicate that ''L. pittfieldae'' was uncommon in the Miocene, much like the five living species in this genus are uncommon today. No living species of ''Leptofoenus'' are documented in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, but there might be a population living there that has remained undiscovered due to its rarity. ''L. pittfieldae'' is placed within ''Leptofoenus'' because it has a striolate region on the side of the

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum ( dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on e ...

, a feature found in the living species. It is differentiated from modern members of the genus based on a number of characters. The long and 2.3mm wide

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 ...

has a thinly sclerotized area behind the "M+Cu" veins, along with a sclerotized spot at the junction of the basal and "M+Cu" veins. The antenna is composed of eleven segments, though the last segment shows a possible fusion line, leaving the possibility that the antennae are thirteen segments long. The metatibia of ''L. pittfieldae'' lacks the rasp-like structure found in modern species. Overall the body of the type specimen is a uniform dark brown.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6528108 Pteromalidae Miocene insects Fossil taxa described in 2009 Prehistoric insects of the Caribbean Fauna of Hispaniola