Ancient insect evolved to mimic flowering plant leaves (IMAGE)

Insect Science, Chinese Academy of Science

Ancient insect evolved to mimic flowering plant leaves

Caption

Fig.1: Reconstruction of the fossil moth lacewing Dryadithone cretacea, preserved in approximately 99-million-year-old Kachin amber. Its broad, leaf-shaped forewings closely resemble flowering plant leaves, providing evidence that insects were using angiosperms as camouflage nearly 99 million years ago. Artificial intelligence analysis and visual modelling support this as the earliest known example of flowering-plant leaf mimicry in the fossil record.

Credit

Shumin Li, Chaofan Shi and Qiang Yang

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