Jurassic mimicry between a hangingfly and a ginkgo from China

dc.contributor.authorWang, Yongjie
dc.contributor.authorLabandeira, Conrad C.
dc.contributor.authorShih, Chungkun
dc.contributor.authorDing, Qiaoling
dc.contributor.authorWang, Chen
dc.contributor.authorZhao, Yunyun
dc.contributor.authorRen, Dong
dc.date.accessioned2014-11-25T20:24:56Z
dc.date.available2014-11-25T20:24:56Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.description.abstractA near-perfect mimetic association between a mecopteran insect species and a ginkgoalean plant species from the late Middle Jurassic of northeastern China recently has been discovered. The association stems from a case of mixed identity between a particular plant and an insect in the laboratory and the field. This confusion is explained as a case of leaf mimesis, wherein the appearance of the multilobed leaf of Yimaia capituliformis (the ginkgoalean model) was accurately replicated by the wings and abdomen of the cimbrophlebiid Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia (the hangingfly mimic). Our results suggest that hangingflies developed leaf mimesis either as an antipredator avoidance device or possibly as a predatory strategy to provide an antiherbivore function for its plant hosts, thus gaining mutual benefit for both the hangingfly and the ginkgo species. This documentation of mimesis is a rare occasion whereby exquisitely preserved, co-occurring fossils occupy a narrow spatiotemporal window that reveal likely reciprocal mechanisms which plants and insects provide mutual defensive support during their preangiospermous evolutionary histories.
dc.format.extent20514–20519
dc.identifier0027-8424
dc.identifier.citationWang, Yongjie, Labandeira, Conrad C., Shih, ChungKun, Ding, Qiaoling, Wang, Chen, Zhao, Yunyun, and Ren, Dong. 2012. "<a href="https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/22580">Jurassic mimicry between a hangingfly and a ginkgo from China</a>." <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</em>, 109, (50) 20514–20519. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1205517109">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1205517109</a>.
dc.identifier.issn0027-8424
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10088/22580
dc.publisherNational Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
dc.relation.ispartofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109 (50)
dc.titleJurassic mimicry between a hangingfly and a ginkgo from China
dc.typearticle
sro.description.unitNH-Paleobiology
sro.description.unitNMNH
sro.identifier.doi10.1073/pnas.1205517109
sro.identifier.itemID114089
sro.identifier.refworksID94927
sro.identifier.urlhttps://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/22580

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