Insect mimicry of plants dates back to the Permian

Abstract

In response to predation pressure, some insects have developed spectacular plant mimicry strategies (homomorphy), involving important changes in their morphology. The fossil record of plant mimicry provides clues to the importance of predation pressure in the deep past. Surprisingly, to date, the oldest confirmed records of insect leaf mimicry are Mesozoic. Here we document a crucial step in the story of adaptive responses to predation by describing a leaf-mimicking katydid from the Middle Permian. Our morphometric analysis demonstrates that leaf-mimicking wings of katydids can be morphologically characterized in a non-arbitrary manner and shows that the new genus and species Permotettigonia gallica developed a mimicking pattern of forewings very similar to those of the modern leaf-like katydids. Our finding suggests that predation pressure was already high enough during the Permian to favour investment in leaf mimicry.

Integrated phylogenomic and fossil evidence of stick and leaf insects (Phasmatodea) reveal a Permian–Triassic co-origination with insectivores

“…However, molecular phylogenies have yielded strongly divergent topologies and suggested a Cretaceous-Palaeogene origin of the group [15,[22][23][24], making it potentially one of the youngest insect orders [21,26]. Such a late diversification of the stick insects would be surprising since the fossil record of insectivores [39,40] and plant-mimicking insects spans the entire Mesozoic [42,43]. We reanalysed a transcriptome dataset for Phasmatodea recently sequenced by Simon et al [15] to elucidate the backbone phylogeny of the order and provide a revised timescale of phasmatodean evolution.…”

3-D imaging reveals four extraordinary cases of convergent evolution of acoustic communication in crickets and allies (Insecta)

“…5a ). The recent description of a leaf-mimicking Tettigonioidea in the Middle Permian demonstrates the antiquity of this clade 14 contra 23 , 24 . The grylloid type is present in an undescribed Liassic fossil from Grand-Duché de Luxembourg (see Fig.…”

Lichen mimesis in mid-Mesozoic lacewings

“…When and how insects first evolved such an ingenious survival strategy is unclear. A Permian katydid exhibiting a mimicking pattern of wings similar to the modern relatives was considered the oldest case of insect mimicry (Garrouste et al, 2016). However, evidence for a contemporaneous mimetic relationship in this Permian deposit was scarce, and there was no quantitative or other useful data to track the mimetic interactions among the insect, model and predator.…”