Life habits and evolutionary biology of new two-winged long-proboscid scorpionflies from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber

Xiaodan Lin, Conrad C. Labandeira (), Chungkun Shih, Carol L. Hotton and Dong Ren ()
Additional contact information
Xiaodan Lin: Capital Normal University
Conrad C. Labandeira: Capital Normal University
Chungkun Shih: Capital Normal University
Carol L. Hotton: Smithsonian Institution
Dong Ren: Capital Normal University

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Long-proboscid scorpionflies are enigmatic, mid-Mesozoic insects associated with gymnosperm pollination. One major lineage, Aneuretopsychina, consists of four families plus two haustellate clades, Diptera and Siphonaptera. One clade, Pseudopolycentropodidae, from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber, contains Parapolycentropus. Here, we newly establish Dualula, assigned to Dualulidae, constituting the fifth lineage. Parapolycentropus and Dualula lineages are small, two-winged, with unique siphonate mouthparts for imbibing pollination drops. A cibarial pump provides siphonal food inflow; in Dualula, the siphon base surrounds a hypopharynx housing a small, valved pump constricted to a narrow salivary duct supplying outgoing enzymes for food fluidization. Indirect evidence links long-proboscid mouthpart structure with contemporaneous tubulate ovulate organs. Direct evidence of gymnospermous Cycadopites pollen is associated with one Parapolycentropus specimen. Parapolycentropus and Dualula exhibit hind-wing reduction that would precede haltere formation, likely caused by Ultrabithorax. Distinctive, male Aneuretopsychina genitalia are evident from specimens in copulo, supplemented by mixed-sex individuals of likely male mating swarms.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09236-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-09236-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09236-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().