Insects’ mastery over flowering-plant mimicry dates back 99 million years
Scientists have discovered a 99-million-year-old fossil of a moth lacewing, pushing back the known history of insect mimicry of flowering plants by 50 million years. This discovery suggests that insects evolved sophisticated camouflage techniques much earlier than previously thought.
Why it matters
Understanding the evolutionary timeline of insect mimicry provides deeper insight into the co-evolution of plants and insects during the Cretaceous period.
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When a certain brilliantly-coloured butterfly, found halfway around the globe—from India to Japan—closes its wings, you cannot tell it apart from a dead leaf: the ‘dead leaf’ butterfly’s wings turn a deeply-veined brown or yellow, ending in a point. And so, when a bird pursues it aerially, the butterfly closes its wings and drops down motionless on to the forest floor, disappearing into the undergrowth and confounding its predator. This butterfly exhibits masterful mimicry to escape predators, as do many insects around the world.
In Southeast Asia, for instance, the pink-hued, green-eyed ‘orchid mantis’ (in the picture), with legs that mimic flower petals, is cleverer still: it uses its camouflage to both avoid predators and attract pollinating insects by absorbing UV light as flowers do: it even sways like a flower in the wind.
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