The first fossil wedge-shaped beetle (Coleoptera, Ripiphoridae) from the middle Jurassic of China

Abstract

A new species of Ripiphoridae Gemminger & Harold, 1870, Archaeoripiphorus nuwa gen. et sp. nov., is described and illustrated from a well-preserved impression fossil from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation collected at Daohugou Village, Shantou Township, Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia, China, representing the oldest documented occurrence of the Ripiphoridae described from the Mesozoic era. It shares several characters belonging to two basal ripiphorid subfamilies (Pelecotominae and Ptilophorinae), but it cannot be attributed to either of them and is herein placed as Subfamily incertae sedis. An overall similarity between Archaeoripiphorus gen. nov. and Recent Pelecotominae and the occurrence of wood-boring beetles in the same Formation implies a similar parasitoid host preference in xylophagous beetles for A. nuwa gen. et sp. nov., putting a spotlight on a potential host-parasitoid relationship in the Mesozoic.