A Probable Pollination Mode Before Angiosperms: Eurasian, Long-Proboscid Scorpionflies

Abstract

The head and mouthpart structures of 11 species of Eurasian scorpionflies represent three extinct and closely related families during a 62-million-year interval from the late Middle Jurassic to the late Early Cretaceous. These taxa had elongate, siphonate (tubular) proboscides and fed on ovular secretions of extinct gymnosperms. Five potential ovulate host-plant taxa co-occur with these insects: a seed fern, conifer, ginkgoopsid, pentoxylalean, and gnetalean. The presence of scorpionfly taxa suggests that siphonate proboscides fed on gymnosperm pollination drops and likely engaged in pollination mutualisms with gymnosperms during the mid-Mesozoic, long before the similar and independent coevolution of nectar-feeding flies, moths, and beetles on angiosperms. All three scorpionfly families became extinct during the later Early Cretaceous, coincident with global gymnosperm-to-angiosperm turnover.Animal pollination, most frequently accomplished by insects (1), benefits seed plants by ensuring efficient fertilization without relying on costlier, abiotic modes such as wind and water

Ancient pinnate leaf mimesis among lacewings

“…The discovery of Bellinympha is of great significance to understanding the Mesozoic evolution and diversification of insects, particularly in the context of early coevolution between plants and pollinators before angiosperms (28). These species reveal a unique pattern that seems to have disappeared in modern insects and adds to the growing body of evidence documenting that the evolution of insects was more complex before the radiation of angiosperms (29).…”

Thrips pollination of Mesozoic gymnosperms

“…Occasionally, both insect groups pollinate the same cycad species (7,8). Even so, Mesozoic evidence for insect pollination of gymnosperms has been sparse and indirect (1,(10)(11)(12), although the remaining seed-plant group, angiosperms, has received considerable support for pollination during the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic (1,(13)(14)(15)(16). Here, we report on four female thrips found in four pieces of Early Cretaceous (Albian) amber from Spain (SI Text), bearing abundant gymnospermous pollen associated with specialized body structures ( Figs.…”

Jurassic mimicry between a hangingfly and a ginkgo from China

“…By contrast, fossil mecopterans are three times more diverse at the genus level, representing 98 genera accommodated in 34 extinct families (17,18). This pattern suggests that recent Mecoptera are relictual, a status also supported by a long and diverse evolutionary history extending to the Permian (11). Mecopterans obtain their scorpionfly namesake from male members of the Panorpidae, a mecopteran clade characterized by distinctive, scorpion-like terminalia.…”

“…Here, we propose a likely leaf mimesis that occurred between a very different pair of interactors-a species from the insect order Mecoptera (scorpionflies) and a species from the diverse seed plant order Ginkgoales (ginkgos), representing a linked, finely honed association. Both groups were more diverse and had a greater breadth of life habits during the Mesozoic than their present diversities would indicate (11)(12)(13). Our reconstruction of leaf mimesis was based on morphological and other biological evidence (14), and we used several principles to guide our process of establishing this initially putative association (15,16).…”