Ovipositor and mouthparts in a fossil insect support a novel ecological role for early orthopterans in 300 million years old forests

eLife

Olivier Béthoux¹  Dong Ren²  Lu Chen²  Jun-Jie Gu³  Alexander Blanke⁴  Qiang Yang⁵ 

[1] CR2P (Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie – Paris), MNHN – CNRS – Sorbonne Université; Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France;College of Life Sciences and Academy for Multidisciplinary Studies, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China;Institute of Ecological Agriculture, College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China;Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Animal Ecology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany;School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, 230 Waihuanxi Road, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, China;

关键词: insect;    oviposition;    mouthpart;    Archaeorthoptera;    phylogeny;    diet;    Other;   

DOI  :  10.7554/eLife.71006

来源: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

【 摘 要 】

A high portion of the earliest known insect fauna is composed of the so-called ‘lobeattid insects’, whose systematic affinities and role as foliage feeders remain debated. We investigated hundreds of samples of a new lobeattid species from the Xiaheyan locality using a combination of photographic techniques, including reflectance transforming imaging, geometric morphometrics, and biomechanics to document its morphology, and infer its phylogenetic position and ecological role. Ctenoptilus frequens sp. nov. possessed a sword-shaped ovipositor with valves interlocked by two ball-and-socket mechanisms, lacked jumping hind-legs, and certain wing venation features. This combination of characters unambiguously supports lobeattids as stem relatives of all living Orthoptera (crickets, grasshoppers, katydids). Given the herein presented and other remains, it follows that this group experienced an early diversification and, additionally, occurred in high individual numbers. The ovipositor shape indicates that ground was the preferred substrate for eggs. Visible mouthparts made it possible to assess the efficiency of the mandibular food uptake system in comparison to a wide array of extant species. The new species was likely omnivorous which explains the paucity of external damage on contemporaneous plant foliage.

【 授权许可】

CC BY