Insect herbivory in Gondwana plants

Rashmi Srivastava; A.K. Srivastava

doi:10.54991/jop.2016.304

Authors

Rashmi Srivastava Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226007, India
A.K. Srivastava Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226007, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54991/jop.2016.304

Keywords:

Insect–plant interaction, Herbivory, Evolution, Feeding pattern, Gondwana, India

Abstract

Plant–insect interaction is dominant in the extant flora and it is estimated that more than one million species of insects directly or indirectly survive on plants. In comparison, such association is limited in extinct flora, mainly due to problem in identifying structural features associated with the insect wronged plant fossils. Concerted efforts and comparative structures observed in extant flora have unfolded the mystery of insect herbivory in fossil plants. The study has helped to understand the feeding pattern and evolutionary features of insects during different time intervals and provide significant evidence to comprehend the co–evolution of plant and insect in the geologic past. Herbivorous insect wings discovered from different Gondwana successions of India belong to families and genera of Homoptera, Heteroptera, Mecoptera, Coleoptera and Blattoidea. The remains of Coleoptera and Mecoptera in all probability represent the earliest record in fossil flora. Insect herbivory is well recognized in Indian flora in the form of insect galls, chewing and eaten marks of leaf margin, disfigurement of lamina, egg–like pouches, trailing marks, mining activity, etc. The available records demonstrate the presence of well-knit coalition of insect–plant interaction in Indian Gondwana successions.

Diverse type of insect herbivory recovered in the Gondwana flora of India implies that insects used the plants for various purposes such as feeding, shelter and laying eggs for their development/ survival and the process has thus helped in the development and evolution of insects in consortium with plants.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Adami–Rodrigues K, Ianuzzi R & Pinto ID 2004. Permian plant–insect interactions from a Gondwana flora of southern Brazil. Fossils and Strata 51: 106–125.

Bana HR 1964. Prognobllatina columbiana Schuddcr from Permo–Carboniferous beds, near Srinagar, Kashmir, India. 22nd International Geological Congress, New Delhi: 274–281.

Banerjee M & Bera S 1998. Record of zoocecidia on leaves of Glossopteris browniana Brongn. from Mohuda Basin, Upper Permian, Indian Lower Gondwana. Indian Biologist 30: 58–61.

Banerji J 2004. Evidence of insect–plant interactions from the Upper Gondwana sequence (Lower Cretaceous) in the Rajmahal Basin, India. Gondwana Research 7: 205–210.

Béthoux O, Galtier J & Nel A 2004. Earliest evidence of insect endophytic oviposition. Palaios 19: 408–413.

Brongniart A 1828–30. Histoire des vegetaux’ .fossiles ‘ou Researches Botaniques et Geologiques sur les vegetaux renfermess dans les diverse ‘couches du globe. Masson el Cie. Paris.

Carpenter FM 1971. Adaptations among Paleozoic insects. Proceedings North American Paleontological Convention 1969 1: 1236–1251.

Carvalho MR, Wilf P, Barrios H, Windsor DM, Currano ED, Labandeira CC & Jaramillo CA 2014. Insect leaf–chewing damage tracks herbivore richness in modern and ancient forests. Plos One 9(5): e94950. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094950

Chaloner WG, Scott AC & Stephenson J 1991. Fossil evidence for plant–arthropod interactions in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic. Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society B 333: 177–186.

Chandra S & Singh KJ 1996. Plant fossils from the type locality of Talchir Formation and evidence of earliest plant–animal activity in Gondwana of India. Gondwana Nine 1: 397–414.

Chandra S, Srivastava AK & Singh KJ 1992. Lower Permian plant fossils from India and early developmental history of the Glossopteris flora. Acta Palaeobotanica 32: 5–19.

Chauhan DK, Tiwari SP & Misra DR 1985. Animal and plant relationship during Carbo–Permian period of India. Bionature 5: 5–8.

De C 1990. Upper Barakar Lebensspuren from Hazaribagh, India. Journal of Geological Society of India 36(4): 430–438.

Dutt AB 1977. Rajharablatta laskarii, a new Lower Gondwana fossil insect from Daltonganj Coalfield, Bihar. Records of Geological Survey of India 108: 167–169.

Feistmantel O 1880. The fossil flora of Gondwana system 2. The flora of Damuda–Panchet Divisons. Memoir of Geological Survey of India. Palaeontologia Indica Series 12, 3(3): 1–77.

Gallego J, Cuneo RN & Escapa I 2014. Plant–arthropod interactions in gymnosperm leaves from the Early Permian of Patagonia, Argentina. Geobios 47: 101–110.

Grauvogel–Stamm L & Kelber KP 1996. Plant–insect interactions and co–evolution during the Triassic in western Europe. Paleontologica Lombardia, Milano NS 5: 5–23.

Handlirsch A 1906–1908. Die Fossilien Insecten und phylogenie der Rezenten formen ,W. Engelmen Leipzig 2: 351–352.

Hislop S 1861. On the age of the fossiliferous thin bedded sandstone and coal of the Province of Nagpur, India. Quarternary Journal of Geological Society of London 17: 354 p.

Kapoor HM, Bajpai U & Maheshwari HK 1993. On a fossil cockroach from the Mamal Formation, Kashmir Himalaya. Journal of Palaeontological Society of India 38: 31–36.

Kar P & Chaudhuri S 1981. A preliminary note on the trace fossils in Barakar Formation of Raniganj Coalfield. Indian Journal of Earth Sciences 8: 66–68.

Khan MA, Spicer RA, Spicer TEV & Bera S 2014. Fossil evidence of insect folivory in the eastern Himalaya Neogene Siwalik forests. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 410: 264–277.

Kevan PG, Chaloner WG & Savile DBO 1975. Interrelationships of early terrestrial arthropods and plants. Palaeontology 18: 391–417.

Krassilov VA 2007. Mines and galls on fossil leaves from the Late Cretaceous of southern Negev, Israel. Proceedings of South African Paleontological Congress, Pretoria, African Invertebrates 48: 13–22.

Krassilov VA & Rasnitsyn AP 2008. Plant–Arthropod interactions in the Early Angiosperm history. Pensoft. Brill. Sophia Moscow and Leiden–Boston.

Laaß M & Hoff C 2015. The earliest evidence of damselfly–like endophytic oviposition in the fossil record. Lethaia 48: 115–124.

Labandeira CC 1998a. Early history of arthropod and vascular plant associations. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 26: 329–377.

Labandeira CC 1998b. Plant–insect associations in the fossil record. Geotimes 43(9): 18–24.

Labandeira CC 2002. The history of associations between plants and animals. Plant–Animal Interactions: An Evolutionary approach. Herrera CM & Pellmyr O (Editors). Blackwell Science: 26–74.

Labandeira CC 2006. The four phases of plant–arthropod associations in deep time. Geologica Acta 4: 409–438.

Labandeira CC 2007. The origin of herbivory on land: Initial patterns of plant tissue consumption by arthropods. Insect Science 14: 259–275.

Labandeira CC 2012. Evidence for outbreaks from the fossil record of insect herbivory. In: Barbosa P, Letourneau DK & Agrawal A (Editors)—Insect outbreaks revisited. Oxford–Blackwell: 269–290.

Labandeira CC & Currano ED 2013. The fossil record of plant–insect dynamics. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 41: 287–311.

Labandeira CC & Phillips TL 1996. A carboniferous insect gall: Insight into early ecologic history of the Holometabola. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 93: 8470–8474.

Labandeira CC & Sepkoski JJ Jr 1993. Insect diversity in the fossil record. Science 261: 310–15.

Labandeira CC, Wilf P, Johnson KR & Marsh F 2007. Guide to insect (and other) damage types on compressed plant fossils, Version 3.0. Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. http: //paleobiology.si.edu/pdfs/insectDamageGuide3.01.pdf

Labandeira CC, Tremblay SL, Bartowski KE & Van Aller Hernick L 2013. Middle Devonian liverwort herbivory and antiherbivore defence. New Phytology 202: 247–258.

Maithy PK 1965. Studies in the Glossopteris flora of India–I5. Pteridophytic and Ginkgoalean remains from the Karharbari beds, Giridih Coalfield, India. Palaeobotanist 13: 239–247.

Maulik PK & Chaudhuri AK 1983. Trace fossils from continental red beds of the Gondwana sequence, Pranhita–Godavari Valley, south India. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 41: 17–34.

McLoughlin S 2011a. New records of leaf galls and arthropod oviposition scars in Permian–Triassic Gondwanan gymnosperms. Australian Journal of Botany 59: 156–169.

McLoughlin S 2011b. Glossopteris–insights into the architecture and relationships of an iconic Permian Gondwanan plant. Journal of Botanical Society of Bengal 65: 1–14.

McLoughlin S, Martin SK & Beattie R 2013. The record of Australian Jurassic plant–arthropod interactions. Gondwana Research, doi 10.1016/l.gr 2013.11.009.

Pal P, Srivastava AK & Ghosh AK 2010. Plant fossils of Maitur Formation: possibly the ultimate stage of Glossopteris flora in Raniganj Coalfield, India. Palaeobotanist 59: 33–45.

Pant DD & Srivastava PC 1995. Lower Gondwana insect remains and evidence of insect–plant interaction. In: Pant DD, Nautiyal DD, Bhatnagar AN, Bose MD & Khare PK (Editors)–Proceedings of the International Conference on Global Environment and Diversification of Plants Through Geological Time: 317–326. Society of Plant Taxonomists, Allahabad.

Prevec R, Labandeira CC, Neveling J, Gastaldo RA, Looy CV & Bamford M 2009. Portrait of a Gondwanan ecosystem: a new late Permian fossil locality from Kwa Zulu–Natal, South Africa. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 135: 454–493.

Rao NR & Shah SC 1959. Fossil insects from the Gondwanas of India. Indian Minerals 8: 3–6.

Scott AC & Taylor TN 1983. Plant/ animal interactions during the Carboniferous. Botanical Review 49: 259–30.

Slater BJ, McLoughlin S & Hilton J 2012. Animal–plant interactions in a Middle Permian permineralised peat of the Bainmedart Coal Measures, Prince Charles Mountains, Antarctica. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 363–364: 109–126.

Srivastava AK 1987. Lower Barakar flora of Raniganj Coalfield and insect/ plant relationship. Palaeobotanist 36: 138–142.

Srivastava AK 1988. An insect wing from the Lower Gondwana of India. Journal of Paleontology 62: 338–340.

Srivastava AK & Chandra S 1992. Report of possible lycopod axes in the Lower Gondwana beds of India. Geophytology 20: 77–79.

Srivastava AK 1996. Plant/ animal relationship in Lower Gondwanas of India. In: Ayyasami K, Sengupta S & Ghosh RN (Editors)–Gondwana 9(1): 549–555. AA Balkema, Rotterdam.

Srivastava AK 1998. Fossil records of insect and insect related plant damage. Zoos Print 8: 5–9.

Srivastava AK 2007. Fossil evidence of gall–inducing arthropod–plant interactions in the Indian subcontinent. Oriental Insects 41: 213–222.

Srivastava AK & Agnihotri D 2011. Insect traces on Early Permian plants of India. Paleontological Journal 45: 200–206.

Srivastava AK & Srivastava R 2010. Insect–plant dynamics in fossil flora of India. Alavesia 3: 3–10.

Srivastava AK, Chandra S & Singh KJ 1996. Trace fossils from Talchir Formation of Talchir Coalfield, Orissa. Geophytology 25: 63–66.

Srivastava AK, Saxena A & Agnihotri D 2009. Insect Burrows from the Upper Permian sequence of Bijori Formation of Satpura Gondwana Basin, India. Permophiles 54: 12–14.

Srivastava AK, Saxena A & Agnihotri D 2010. Trace fossils from the Barakar Formation (Early Permian) of Satpura Gondwana Basin, Madhya Pradesh, India. Geophytology 39: 18–22.

Srivastava Rashmi & Krassilov VA 2012. Revision of Early Cretaceous angiosperm remains from the Rajmahal Basin, India with notes on the palaeoecology of Pentoxylon plant. Cretaceous Research 33: 66–71.

Surange KR 1975. Indian Lower Gondwana Floras: a review. In: Campbell, KSW (Editor)–Gondwana Geology. 3rd Gondwana Symposium, Canberra, 1973, pp. 135–147.

Vishnu–Mittre 1957. Fossil galls on some Jurassic conifer leaves. Current Science 26: 210–211.

Verma KK 1967. A new fossil insect from the Lower Gondwana of Kashmir. Current Science 36: 338–34.