A new parasitoid wasp (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil: The first Mesozoic Pteromalidae

A new genus and species of small (3.5 mm excluding ovipositor) parisitoid wasp is described from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) Crato Formation Lagerstätte of Brazil. Parviformosus wohlrabeae gen. et sp. nov. is known from a single female imago and is assigned to Pteromalidae. It is diagnosed by the robustness of the scutellum, the structure, size and positioning of the mesopleuron, the complexity of the propodeum–petiole junction and a posteriorly curved dorsal ‘lip’ on metasomal segment 4. At only 3.5 mm in length, P. wohlrabeae is the smallest fossil wasp from the Cretaceous of South America and the first Mesozoic representative of Pteromalidae.