Sound vs. light: wing-based communication in Carboniferous insects
Thomas Schubnel, Frédéric Legendre, Patrick Roques, Romain Garrouste, Raphaël Cornette, Michel Perreau, Naïl Perreau, Laure Desutter-Grandcolas & André Nel
近日，《通讯—生物学》发表的一项研究报告了一枚化石化的昆虫翅膀，其特征提供了迄今最早的关于昆虫利用翅膀进行交流的证据。这项发现表明石炭纪晚期（约3.1亿年前）的昆虫可能已开始用翅膀传播信息。
许多昆虫利用翅膀的形状、颜色或声音吸引配偶或吓退捕食者。这些行为何时以及如何演化尚不明确，因为在化石化的翅膀上，用于交流的结构很难和其他功能的结构相区分。
André Nel 和同事在法国列万发现了一枚化石化昆虫翅膀，属于此前未鉴定的一种类似蚱蜢的巨大食肉昆虫——巨翅目（Titanoptera），最大翅展可达逾33厘米。作者将其命名为Theiatitan azari，来自希腊神话的泰坦光明女神忒伊亚（Theia）。这枚翅膀早于此前已知最古老的巨翅目物种以及Permostridulus brongniarti遗骸，后者是一种被认为用翅膀制造声音的昆虫，大约存在于5000万年前。研究者发现，一些巨翅目昆虫，包括T. azari，前翅有多个不同角度和形状的面，类似于其他化石或现代昆虫翅膀上用来反射光线和产生声音用于交流的结构。翅膀的这类形状和结构表明，T. azari或能利用这些面，用翅膀反射光线或产生噼啪声进行交流。
这一发现强调了在演化史上昆虫交流中翅膀的重要意义，而T. azari则是目前已知用翅膀交流的最古老昆虫。
来源：中国科学报 刘如楠
Abstract
Acoustic communication is well-known in insects since the Mesozoic, but earlier evidence of this behavior is rare. Titanoptera, an ‘orthopteroid’ Permian-Triassic order, is one of the few candidates for Paleozoic intersex calling interactions: some specimens had highly specialized broadened zones on the forewings, which are currently considered—despite inconclusive evidence—as ‘resonators’ of a stridulatory apparatus. Here we argue that the stridulatory apparatus hypothesis is unlikely because the Titanoptera lack a stridulatory file on their bodies, legs or wings. Instead, comparing these broadened zones with similar structures in extant locusts, flies, and fossil damselflies, we find evidence that the Titanoptera used their wings to produce flashes of light and/or crepitated sounds. Moreover, we describe the first Carboniferous (~310 Mya) Titanoptera, which exhibits such specialized zones, thus corresponding to the oldest record of wing communication in insects. Whether these communication systems were used to attract sexual partners and/or escape predators remain to be demonstrated.
位访客