The oldest representative of the bombyliid bee fly in the earliest Eocene French amber
Aude Maheu and Andre Nel
Eoconophorina delfineae gen. et sp. nov., the oldest representative of the bee fly subfamily Bombyliinae, is described from the earliest Eocene Oise amber (France). It is characterized by the presence of mid tibial spurs, cylindrical abdomen and a particular combination of wing venation characters. It is putatively attributed to the tribe Conophorini. This fossil is 53 Ma old, ca. 19 Ma older than the previous oldest records of the subfamily, known as compression fossils. There are very few older bee flies, one from the Paleocene of Menat (France), and six from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, belonging to different subfamilies or of uncertain taxonomic position. Thus this fossil will be helpful for future calibration of phylogeny and dating of the bee flies.
Aude Maheu [aude.maheu23@gmail.com], 5 rue Marie Davy, F-75014, Paris, France. André Nel [anel@mnhn.fr] (corresponding author), Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité (ISYEB), Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université des Antilles, EPHE, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 50, F-75005 Paris, France.
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