中国科学院南京地质古生物研究所机构知识库

Plants and insects are the two most diverse groups among terrestrial macro-organisms. They interact with each other to various extents, and constitute the most significant part of complex terrestrial ecosystems. The early Permian tuff flora in Wuda, China, buried by volcanic ash in its growth position, represents an intricate peat-forming forest in the subtropics of the eastern Tethys. However, the paleoecology of the community, especially the relationships between plants and their herbivorous insects, remains poorly understood. We report evidence for plant-insect interactions in the flora based on a thorough investigation of insect-mediated damage on the plant specimens. In total, 8 types of insect-mediated damage, belonging to 5 functional feeding groups, were recognized in 11 plant species. The insect damage recognized in the flora comprises oviposition on calamitalean axes; external leaf feeding, galling, oviposition, and wood boring on marattialean ferns: external leaf feeding, galling, and oviposition on noeggerathialeans: external leaf feeding, piercing and sucking, galling, and oviposition on cycadophytes. Damage occurrence indicates that the cycadophyte taxon Pterophyllum sp. cf . P. daihoense is likely the most frequently targeted plant in the flora. Our results may be a subset of the broader pattern of plant-insect interaction in the early Permian subtropics, due to the unusual environmental conditions, but they do provide a glimpse into the peat-forming swamp ecosystems of the late Paleozoic Cathaysia. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.