One key event in insect evolution was the development of mandibles with two joints, which allowed powerful biting but restricted their movement to a single degree of freedom. These mandibles define the Dicondylia, which constitute over 99% of all extant insect species. It was common doctrine that the dicondylic articulation of chewing mandibles remained unaltered for more than 400 million years. We report highly modified mandibles overcoming the restrictions of a single degree of freedom and hypothesize their major role in insect diversification. These mandibles are defining features of parasitoid chalcid wasps, one of the most species-rich lineages of insects. The shift from powerful chewing to precise cutting likely facilitated adaptations to parasitize hosts hidden in hard substrates, which pose challenges to the emerging wasps. We reveal a crucial step in insect evolution and highlight the importance of comprehensive studies even of putatively well-known systems.

Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań 61 614 Poznań Poland

Department of Biological Sciences University of New Hampshire Durham NH 03824 USA

Department of Entomology State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart 70191 Stuttgart Germany

Department of Zoology Faculty of Science Charles University 128 43 Prague 2 Czech Republic

Evolutionary Biology of Invertebrates Institute of Evolution and Ecology University of Tübingen 72076 Tübingen Germany

Institute for Photon Science and Synchrotron Radiation 76344 Eggenstein Leopoldshafen Germany

Institute of Biology Systematic Entomology University of Hohenheim 70593 Stuttgart Germany

Laboratory for Applications of Synchrotron Radiation 76131 Karlsruhe Germany

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Evolution of flexible biting in hyperdiverse parasitoid wasps

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Dryad
10.5061/dryad.0rxwdbs1x

figshare
10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5762457