| Title |
An endoparasitoid Cretaceous fly and the evolution of parasitoidism
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
The Science of Nature, December 2015
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s00114-015-1327-y |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Qingqing Zhang, Junfeng Zhang, Yitao Feng, Haichun Zhang, Bo Wang |
| Abstract |
Parasitoidism is a key innovation in insect evolution, and parasitoid insects, nowadays, play a significant role in structuring ecological communities. Despite their diversity and ecological impact, little is known about the early evolution and ecology of parasitoid insects, especially parasitoid true flies (Diptera). Here, we describe a bizarre fly, Zhenia xiai gen. et sp. nov., from Late Cretaceous Burmese amber (about 99 million years old) that represents the latest occurrence of the family Eremochaetidae. Z. xiai is an endoparasitoid insect as evidenced by a highly developed, hypodermic-like ovipositor formed by abdominal tergites VIII + IX that was used for injecting eggs into hosts and enlarged tridactylous claws supposedly for clasping hosts. Our results suggest that eremochaetids are among the earliest definite records of parasitoid insects. Our findings reveal an unexpected morphological specialization of flies and broaden our understanding of the evolution and diversity of ancient parasitoid insects. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 6 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Morocco | 1 | 17% |
| Japan | 1 | 17% |
| Unknown | 4 | 67% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 5 | 83% |
| Scientists | 1 | 17% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 13 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 13 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Bachelor | 4 | 31% |
| Researcher | 2 | 15% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 1 | 8% |
| Other | 1 | 8% |
| Student > Master | 1 | 8% |
| Other | 1 | 8% |
| Unknown | 3 | 23% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 6 | 46% |
| Earth and Planetary Sciences | 2 | 15% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 1 | 8% |
| Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine | 1 | 8% |
| Unknown | 3 | 23% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 11 October 2020.
All research outputs
#5,323,422
of 25,385,864 outputs
Outputs from The Science of Nature
#575
of 2,264 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#83,776
of 403,272 outputs
Outputs of similar age from The Science of Nature
#10
of 20 outputs
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