Early Cretaceous mealybug herbivory on a laurel highlights the deep-time history of angiosperm-scale insect associations

© 2021 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2021 New Phytologist Foundation.

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:The New phytologist. - 1979. - 232(2021), 3 vom: 01. Nov., Seite 1414-1423
1. Verfasser: Xiao, Lifang (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Labandeira, Conrad C, Ben-Dov, Yair, Maccracken, S Augusta, Shih, Chungkun, Dilcher, David L, Ren, Dong
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2021
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:The New phytologist
Schlagworte:Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Dakota Formation Lauraceae Mealybug angiosperm damage types plant-insect association scale insect
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:© 2021 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2021 New Phytologist Foundation.
Insect fluid-feeding on fossil vascular plants is an inconspicuous and underappreciated mode of herbivory that can provide novel data on the evolution of deep-time ecological associations and indicate the host-plant preferences of ancient insect herbivores. Previous fossil studies have documented piercing-and-sucking herbivory but often are unable to identify culprit insect taxa. One line of evidence are punctures and scale-insect impression marks made by piercing-and-sucking insects that occasionally provide clues to the systematic identities and relationships of particular insect herbivores. We report here the earliest occurrences of piercing and sucking on early angiosperms as evidenced by scale insect covers, impression marks, punctures and body fossils - notably a mealybug - from the Lower Cretaceous Rose Creek Flora of the Dakota Formation (c. 103 Ma), in southeastern Nebraska, USA. The mealybug, two other scale insect taxa, and several distinctive damage types on laurel leaves and seed-plant stems at Rose Creek document a diverse guild of piercing-and-sucking insects on early angiosperms. The discovery of an Early Cretaceous female mealybug indicates an early herbivorous association with a laurel host. These data provide direct evidence for co-associations and possible coevolution of scale insects and their plant hosts during early angiosperm diversification
Beschreibung:Date Completed 18.10.2021
Date Revised 18.10.2021
published: Print-Electronic
Citation Status MEDLINE
ISSN:1469-8137
DOI:10.1111/nph.17672