Insects and plants are the most important components of forest ecosystems. Studying the relationship between insects and plants is particularly important for understanding the maintenance and evolution mechanisms of ecosystems in the context of climate change. Plant leaf fossils contain abundant forms of insect feeding remains, making them excellent materials for studying the evolution of the relationship between herbivorous insects and plants.
Quercus section Heterobalanus is a plant of the genus Quercus in the Fagaceae family. It is not only the dominant species in modern forest vegetation in southwestern my country, especially the Hengduan Mountains, but also has rich leaf fossil records. Su Tao, associate researcher of the Paleoecology Group of the Banna Botanical Garden, and others used the upper Pliocene Longmen flora of Yongping County in western Yunnan and eight modern alpine oak forest samples collected from Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet as materials to compare fossil and modern alpine oak. The morphological composition and differences of insect feeding in leaves were discussed. The evolution of insect feeding behavior in alpine oak forests under the background of Quaternary climate change was discussed. The results show that the diversity of insect feeding forms in modern samples is significantly positively correlated with the average annual temperature; except for one gall type, the insect feeding forms of alpine oak leaves in the Longmen flora can be found in modern samples; In addition, all modern samples have significantly more feeding morphological taxa than the Longmen flora, although the average annual temperature of the Longmen flora is significantly higher than that of any modern site. It can be seen that Quaternary climate change has not reduced the diversity of insect feeding forms in alpine oak forests. On the contrary, this diversity has been enhanced. This study supports the "cumulative effect" hypothesis of ecosystem evolution, that is, in stable forest vegetation, as time goes by, the relationship between animals and plants will gradually strengthen. It also shows that plants play an important role in insect diversity. The role of "Evolutionary Island". This study pioneered the combination of fossils and modern samples to explore the evolution of herbivorous insect feeding behavior under the background of climate change, providing new ideas for understanding the evolutionary history of the relationship between animals and plants in modern ecosystems.
Figure 1 Comparison of insect feeding morphology between fossil alpine oak leaves and modern samples. A-E: Fossils; F-J: Modern samples. The feeding patterns of A-D and F-I are consistent, while E and J are different.
Figure 2 Heat map and cluster analysis illustrate the composition and differences in insect feeding morphology between fossil sites (LM) and modern samples.
animal tags：
you may also like
The story of "Nangying Night Reading" has been included in textbooks and can be said to be very popular. It is said that 1700 years ago, there was a poor boy named Che Yin who studied very hard and refused to let go of the night time. But he could not buy oil for lighting, so he caught some f...
Some people may not believe that insects and their by-products can be used as raw materials for industrial production, but this is a true fact. (1) Shellac Shellac is also called fire paint, and the trade name of the paint material is shellac sheet. T...
[Economic Significance] Homoptera includes cicadas, foamhoppers, leafhoppers, treehoppers, waxhoppers, planthoppers, psyllids, whiteflies, aphids and scale insects. It is a larger group in the Insecta class with large morphological changes. , with piercing and sucking mouthparts, and the text...
Geckos are a common pet reptile with relatively simple environmental requirements, but they still require proper feeding and care. Here is a detailed introduction on how to raise geckos:1. Habitat spaceRoosting Box: Provide a roosting box of adequate size, either glass or plastic boxes. Make sure th...
The life of some animals lasts for decades, while the life of insects often only lasts for a short time. The ontogenetic history of an individual (whether it is an egg or a larva) from the time it leaves its mother to the time it reaches sexual maturity and produces offspring is called a gene...
Body length is about 7 mm, grayish brown. The head tube is shorter and has a longitudinal groove on its surface. The wing elytra are slightly oval, with slightly pointed ends. The surface is densely covered with yellow-brown hairs and has brown hair patches, forming irregular markings and ten...
The front of the forewings is black, and the wing chambers have white long oval spots with blurred boundaries. The front of the hind wings is red at the base, and the middle area is white, separated by black wing veins; the outer edge is black with scattered white spots; the hip area is yello...
This species is a precious large silk butterfly that has long been extinct in Poland and Spain. Therefore, it was the first insect to be included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and was listed as a Level II protected species. It is listed...
Email: jsset#163.com (change # to @) Please indicate your purpose of visit! Guangdong ICP No. 2022053326 XML| map| Chinese
