Insect herbivory on early angiosperms from the lower cretaceous of Northwest China

ABSTRACT

Insect herbivory on fossil angiosperm leaves was recorded from the upper Lower Cretaceous Zhonggou Formation in the Hanxia Section of the Jiuquan Basin, Gansu Province, NW China. Four functional feeding groups, including hole feeding, margin feeding, skeletonisation, and galling were recognised on nine fossil angiosperm leaves belonging to three species of eudicot. Ten insect damage types (DTs), including DT01, DT02, DT03, DT12, DT14, DT15, DT26, DT32, DT34, and DT61, were identified based on the insect damage morphotypes. Combined with the fossil records of insects reported from the Lower Cretaceous Zhonggou Formation of Jiuquan Basin, these suggest that there were various herbivorous insects that are related to the insect DTs, such as Blattoidea, Hemiptera, Diptera, Orthoptera, and Coleopterathe, which can related to the insects DTs, and indicate a diversified herbivorous insectangiosperm community in Jiuquan Basin during the late Early Cretaceous. Moreover, the diversified terrestrial ecosystem and fluctuating wet and dry climate in Jiuquan Basin during the late Early Cretaceous, would provide a suitable condition for the radiation of herbaceous angiosperms in Jiuquan Basin during the Aptian–Albian gap and promoting the coevolution of early angiosperms and their related herbivores.

KEYWORDS:

• Herbivorous insects
• early angiosperms
• late Early Cretaceous
• insect damage types
• ecological environment

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Grant (2019QZKK0704); the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants (42072014 and 42272029), the Science and Technology Program of Gansu Province (20JR5RA236), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2022-ey18) and the “Innovation Star” Project for outstanding graduate students in Gansu Province (2022CXZX-125).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Program of Gansu Province [20JR5RA236]; “Innovation Star” Project for outstanding graduate students in Gansu Province [2022CXZX–125]; National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [42072014 and Lzujbky-2019-45]; the National Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Grant and the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants [2019QZKK0704 and 42272029].