دانلود رایگان مقاله رفتار دفاعی حشره گیاه در کهربا کرتاسه

Abstract

Amber holds special paleobiological significance due to its ability to preserve direct evidence of biotic interactions and animal behaviors for millions of years. Here we review the finding of Hallucinochrysa diogenesi Perez-de la Fuente, Delcl
os, Pe nalver and Engel, 2012, a morphologically atypical larva related ~ to modern green lacewings (Insecta: Neuroptera) that was described in Early Cretaceous amber from the El Soplao outcrop (northern Spain). The fossil larva is preserved with a dense cloud of fern trichomes that corresponds to the trash packet the insect gathered and carried on its back for camouflaging and shielding, similar to that which is done by its extant relatives. This finding supports the prominent role of wildfires in the paleoecosystem and provides direct evidence of both an ancient planteinsect interaction and an early acquisition of a defensive behavior in an insect lineage. Overall, the fossil of H. diogenesi showcases the potential that the amber record offers to reconstruct not only the morphology of fossil arthropods but, more remarkably, their lifestyles and ecological relationships.

4. Paleobiological implications

This finding provides direct evidence that trash-carrying behavior, understood as actively harvesting and carrying exogenous materials for the purposes of camouflage and physical protection, has remained in stasis for more than 100 million years in the green lacewing lineage. Not only that, but it represents the earliest trash-carrying record known to date in the fossil record of arthropods (see Perez-de la Fuente et al., 2012a
). Previous fossil evidence of this behavior has only been reported from other immature insects in Cenozoic amber, i.e., in assassin bugs, barklice, and owlflies from Miocene Dominican and Mexican ambers (Wu, 1996; Engel and Grimaldi, 2007; Boucot and Poinar Jr., 2010), and in green lacewings from Eocene Baltic amber (Weitschat, 2009). A similar behavior is present in case-building insect larvae like caddisflies (indirect camouflage), with records known since the Jurassic (Grimaldi and Engel, 2005).