Lichen mimesis in mid-Mesozoic lacewings
- Capital Normal University, China
- Smithsonian Institute, United States
- Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Abstract
Animals mimicking other organisms or using camouflage to deceive predators are vital survival strategies. Modern and fossil insects can simulate diverse objects. Lichens are an ancient symbiosis between a fungus and an alga or a cyanobacterium that sometimes have a plant-like appearance and occasionally are mimicked by modern animals. Nevertheless, lichen models are almost absent in fossil record of mimicry. Here, we provide the earliest fossil evidence of a mimetic relationship between the moth lacewing mimic Lichenipolystoechotes gen. nov. and its co-occurring fossil lichen model Daohugouthallus ciliiferus. We corroborate the lichen affinity of D. ciliiferus and document this mimetic relationship by providing structural similarities and detailed measurements of the mimic’s wing and correspondingly the model’s thallus. Our discovery of lichen mimesis predates modern lichen-insect associations by 165 million years, indicating that during the mid-Mesozoic, the lichen-insect mimesis system was well established and provided lacewings with highly honed survival strategies.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31970383)
- Yongjie Wang
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31730087,41688103)
- Dong Ren
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31770022)
- Xinli Wei
Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality (5192002)
- Yongjie Wang
Academy for Multidisciplinary Studies of Capital Normal University
- Dong Ren
- Yongjie Wang
Capacity Building for Sci-Tech Innovation - Fundamental Scientific Research Funds (19530050144)
- Yongjie Wang
Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT-17R75)
- Dong Ren
Support Project of High Level Teachers in Beijing Municipal Universities (IDHT20180518)
- Dong Ren
Graduate Student Program for International Exchange and Joint Supervision at Capital Normal University (028175534000,028185511700)
- Hui Fang
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- George H Perry, Pennsylvania State University, United States
Version history
- Received: May 16, 2020
- Accepted: July 27, 2020
- Accepted Manuscript published: July 29, 2020 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: September 1, 2020 (version 2)
Copyright
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
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Lichen mimesis in mid-Mesozoic lacewings
eLife 9:e59007.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59007
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