Figure 7. Flat wasps (Bethylidae) trapped in Kachin amber while stinging into host larvae for oviposition
(A) Snakefly larva as host, PED 2351.
(B) Beetle larva as host.81
(C) Lepidopteran caterpillar as host, PED 2575.
(A) Snakefly larva as host, PED 2351.
(B) Beetle larva as host.81
(C) Lepidopteran caterpillar as host, PED 2575.
On top of the evidence of people practicing animal husbandry in the Pyrenees Mountains before, during and after the legendary genocidal flood inflicted on Earth by creationism's 'omni-benevolent' god according to their superstition, and the fact that the predictable layer of silt from such a flood failed to materialise or was away the evidence of this occupation, we have more bad news for creationists.
A paper which describes how insects had evolved a whole array of defensive strategies, 100 million years before the legendary 'creation Week', when the universe was allegedly magicked up out of nothing by a magic man made of nothing, has just been published in the journal iScience.
The significance of this is that it shows an already mature and established ecosystem with predators against which insects needed protection. Defence is one aspect of an evolutionary arms race, of course, and arms races are entirely inconsistent with any notion of intelligent [sic] design because it is not intelligent to create predators to eat your designs, then created mechanisms and structure for the victims of predation to prevent your designs doing what they were designed to do. Arms races are examples of the needless complexity and prolific waste that can result from a mindless, undirected natural process. Needless complexity and prolific waste are the antithesis of intelligent design which should be minimally complex and minimally wasteful.
And of course, the existence of these fossil insects set in amber from 100 million years ago, alone falsifies the childish notion that Earth has only existed for 10,000 years.
The paper is the work of a team of palaeoarchaeologists from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich), Germany and University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany, led by Professor Carolin Haug of MMU. It is explained in a brief news release from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität:
Technical details and illustrations are given in the team's open access paper in iScienceEarly life stages of insects fulfill important functions in our ecosystems. They decompose dead bodies and wood, forming soil and returning various elements into material cycles. Not least, they are a major food source for many larger animals such as birds and mammals. This has led to many insect larvae developing structures and strategies for reducing the danger of being eaten. These include features like spines and hairs, but also camouflage and concealment. Over millions of years, a wide variety of such adaptation strategies have developed.
Larva of a wedge-shaped beetle in amber, which could have lived inside other insects like its modern counterparts.© Carolin Haug
Researchers at LMU and the universities of Greifswald and Rostock have studied particularly well preserved fossils from Burmese amber and have been able to demonstrate that such anti-predator mechanisms had already evolved very diverse forms in insect larvae during the Cretaceous period 100 million years ago. This includes well-known strategies such as that employed by lacewing larvae, which carry various plant and animal materials on their back to give them camouflage, or the ploy of mimicking the appearance of certain plant parts.
Larva of a scorpionfly in 100-million-year-old amber with hairs on its back for attaching camouflage material.© Carolin HaugOverall, the article, which has been published in the journal iScience, shows that a large variety of different strategies already existed 100 million years ago for insect larvae to defend themselves against predators.A particularly spectacular example is by far the oldest larva of a scorpionfly to have been discovered, which is the second fossil ever found to have special hairs on its back for attaching camouflage material. Also, I could mention sawfly larvae that lived in leaves and created tunnels in them as they ate their way through the thin layer of the leaf interior.
Observing the diversity of the past and the emergence and disappearance of various morphologies helps us better understand these processes, which is particularly important in view of the ongoing biodiversity crisis.
Professor Carolin Haug, lead author
Faculty of Biology
Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.
HighlightsA double whammy for creationists at Christmas: not only evidence of arms races 100 million years before 'Creation Week', when arms races are supposed to only exist after 'The Fall', which wasn't to happen for another 100 million years, give or take a few thousand, which pushes it way back before there were humans to 'Fall', allegedly, but yet more evidence of the long history of Earth before it was magically created out of nothing.
- Review of different defensive strategies of holometabolan larvae in Kachin amber
- New cases including hymenopteran and hangingfly caterpillars were found
- Modern and now extinct strategies were present in Cretaceous in multiple lineages
- Strategies may have evolved convergently as result of similar selective pressures
Summary
Holometabolan larvae are a major part of the animal biomass and an important food source for many animals. Many larvae evolved anti-predator strategies and some of these can even be recognized in fossils. A Lagerstätte known for well-preserved holometabolan larvae is the approximately 100-million-year-old Kachin amber from Myanmar. Fossils can not only allow to identify structural defensive specializations, but also lifestyle and even behavioral aspects. We review here the different defensive strategies employed by various holometabolan larvae found in Kachin amber, also reporting new cases of a leaf-mining hymenopteran caterpillar and a hangingfly caterpillar with extensive spines. This overview demonstrates that already 100 million years ago many modern strategies had already evolved in multiple lineages, but also reveals some cases of now extinct strategies. The repetitive independent evolution of similar strategies in distantly related lineages indicates that several strategies evolved convergently as a result of similar selective pressures.
Graphical abstract
Introduction
A large share of animal diversity and biomass in terrestrial and fresh-water ecosystems is represented by the group Insecta. More precisely, it is represented by its ingroup Holometabola with the hyperdiverse lineages of Hymenoptera (wasps), Coleoptera (beetles), Lepidoptera (moths), and Diptera (flies), as well as some less diverse groups such as Neuropterida (lacewings and allies), Mecoptera (scorpionflies), or Trichoptera (caddisflies). Holometabolans are characterized by a distinct differentiation of the early post-embryonic life stages, the larvae, which possess very different morphologies and ecologies compared to their adults. Also, quite some species spend a considerably longer time of their life span in the larval form and have only a short-lived adult phase. The larvae exhibit specializations for eating, i.e., to gather energy fast and effective,1 possibly representing a key feature of holometabolan larvae.
These specializations allow the larvae to transform other food sources into high-protein matter. Holometabolan larvae are therefore an interesting food source for many types of organisms, including other holometabolan larvae, but also other representatives of Insecta including adults, and not least a variety of larger organisms including mammals, lizards, and especially also many types of birds.
A strong selective pressure is therefore acting on holometabolan larvae to evolve anti-predator strategies and increase the survival rates of the larvae. Such strategies can involve, among others, different aspects of behavior, morphological features, chemical specializations, physiological changes, or also combinations of several of these factors (see also2). The occurrence of several anti-predator strategies can therefore also give insights into possible predator strategies, as these strategies must have evolved under certain selective pressures.
The evolutionary interaction of predator and prey is very old. We can therefore expect that anti-predator specializations of holometabolan larvae should also be around since quite some time. A look into the fossil record offers a view on this aspect. The oldest fossils of holometabolan larvae are from the Carboniferous, slightly more than 300 million years ago.3,4 Yet, the record in the Paleozoic is overall rather scarce.5,6 From the Triassic onwards, the Mesozoic has provided several larval forms,7,8,9,10,11 but many Lagerstätten providing a wealth of adult holometabolans have provided an astonishingly low amount of their larval forms.12 From the Cretaceous onward, ambers start to provide a window to the larval forms of Holometabola in the past in an almost life-like manner. While there are older ambers,13,14,15,16 these have so far not included holometabolan larvae. Among the different Cretaceous ambers, Kachin amber, found in Myanmar and being around 100 million years old, has been especially productive in providing examples of holometabolan larvae17,18 that possess different types of anti-predator structures or allow to infer anti-predator types of behavior.19,20,21 We here summarize the known cases of anti-predator strategies of holometabolan larvae from Kachin amber, including the report of some new findings.
The overall aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the ecosystem of the Cretaceous Myanmar amber forest. For this purpose, it is necessary to understand the ecological role of a group and its possible position in the food web. With this overview, we want to examine aspects of the potential ecological importance of holometabolan larvae in the Cretaceous Myanmar amber forest, also to give a starting point for further investigations of the evolutionary change of the ecological role in deep time till today.
Figure 1. Lacewing larvae in Kachin amber with camouflaging structures
(A) Aphidlion-like larva, PED 0642.
(B) Larva of split-footed lacewings, PED 0377.
(C) Owllion larva, BUB 3724.
Figure 2. Larva of Mecoptera (Bittacidae), PED 1986
(A) Left-lateral view.
(B) Color-marked version of A.
(C) Right-lateral view.
(D) Right-lateral close-up of the head.
(E) Color-marked version of D.
(F) Left-lateral close-up of the head.
(G) Color-marked version of F. Abbreviations: hc = head capsule; mp = maxillary palps; mt = metathorax; pt = prothorax; te = trunk end; 8a = appendage of abdomen segment 8 (proleg).
Figure 3. Various different types of defensive strategies in holometabolan larvae from Kachin amber or modern counterparts; drawings modified from various sources
(A) Plant mimesis of a lacewing larva.40
(B–H) Larvae living inside wood.
(B) Larva of a false flower beetle (Scraptiidae;42).
(C) Larva of a false click beetle (Eucnemidae;43).
(D) Larva of a soldier fly (Stratiomyomorpha;44).
(E) Larva of a beaded lacewing (Berothidae;45).
(F) Larva of a Texas beetle (Brachypsectridae;46).
(G) Larva of a pleasing lacewing (Dilaridae;47).
(H) Larva of a longhorn beetle (Cerambycidae;48).
(I) Leaf-mining caterpillar.49
(J) Gall in a leaf from the Early Cretaceous.50
Figure 4. Leaf-mining caterpillar, BUB 4437
(A) Dorso-lateral view.
(B) Ventro-lateral view.
(C) Color-marked version of B.
(D) Stereo anaglyph, use red-cyan glasses to view.
(E) Close-up on head.
(F) Stereo anaglyph of part of trunk with leglets, use red-cyan glasses to view. Abbreviations: at = antenna; a1 = abdomen segment 1; a9 = abdomen segment 9; hc = head capsule; li = labium; mt = metathorax; mx = maxilla; pt = prothorax; te = trunk end; 1t = appendage of trunk segment 1; 2a = appendage of abdomen segment 2 (proleg); 8a = appendage of abdomen segment 8 (proleg).
Figure 5. Leaf-mining caterpillars
(A–C) PED 2303.
(A) Ventral view.
(B) Close-up on head.
(C) Color-marked version of B.
(D–E) PED 2546.
(D) Dorsal(?) view.
(E) Close-up on head. Abbreviations: at = antenna; hc = head capsule; mp = maxillary palp.
Figure 6. Various different types of defensive strategies in holometabolan larvae from Kachin amber; drawings modified from various sources
(A–B) Digging larvae.
(A) Antlion larva (Myrmeleontidae) with digging setae.75
(B) Presumed larva of spoon-winged lacewings (Nemopterinae).
(C–E) Parasites in the wide sense.
(C) Larva of mantis lacewings (Mantispidae) climbing onto a spider leg.77
(D) Triungulin larvae of checker beetles (Cleridae) closely associated to an early bee.78
(E) Triungulin larva of wedge-shaped beetles (Ripiphoridae), color-marked (SMNS BU 60_12).
Figure 7. Flat wasps (Bethylidae) trapped in Kachin amber while stinging into host larvae for oviposition
(A) Snakefly larva as host, PED 2351.
(B) Beetle larva as host.81
(C) Lepidopteran caterpillar as host, PED 2575.
Figure 8. Various different types of defensive strategies in holometabolan larvae from Kachin amber
(A–C) Self-mimicry of a beetle larva, PED 2120, compare B and C.
(A) Overview.
(B) Symmetrized head.
(C) Symmetrized trunk end.
(D–E) Water pennies, larvae of Psephenidae.
(D) Incomplete specimen, posterior trunk end, PED 2240.
(E) Ventral view on complete specimen.87
(F) Larva of skin beetles (Dermestidae) with long hairs, PED 1369.
(G) Reconstruction of lepidopteran caterpillar with stout spines dorsally.70 Abbreviations: at = antenna; hc = head capsule; md = mandible; pa = pseudo-antenna; pm = pseudo-mandible; te = trunk end.
Haug, Carolin; Haug, Joachim T.; Haug, Gideon T.; Müller, Patrick; Zippel, Ana; Kiesmüller, Christine; Gauweiler, Joshua; Hörnig, Marie K.
Fossils in Myanmar amber demonstrate the diversity of anti-predator strategies of Cretaceous holometabolan insect larvae
iScience 27(1) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.108621
Copyright: © 2023 The authors.
Published by Elsevier B.V. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
It's shaping up to be yet another bad year for creationism, so expect a further decline in the number of people fooled into joining the childish cult.
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