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Issue: Vol. 7 No. 6: December 2024
Type: Correspondence
Published: 2024-12-20
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.7.6.7
Page range: 719-722
Abstract views: 29
PDF downloaded: 25

The first record of disruptive colouration in holometabolan larvae from about 100 million-year-old Kachin amber is a lacewing larva with dark stripes on the legs

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich), Faculty of Biology, Großhaderner Str. 2, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany; GeoBio-Center at LMU, Richard-Wagner-Str. 10, 80333 München, Germany
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich), Faculty of Biology, Großhaderner Str. 2, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich), Faculty of Biology, Großhaderner Str. 2, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany; GeoBio-Center at LMU, Richard-Wagner-Str. 10, 80333 München, Germany
Disruptive colouration in holometabolan larvae

Abstract

Animals have evolved various strategies to avoid being eaten (e.g., Howland, 1974; Peterson et al., 2021). Such strategies are especially important in groups of animals that represent a large biomass and are therefore attractive aims for predators (Lindstedt et al., 2019). Holometabola, the group including beetles, bees, butterflies, and all their closer relatives, represents a vast biomass in continental ecosystems; more precisely their larval forms represent this vast biomass (Husler & Husler, 1940). These larvae are important food sources for many other groups of animals and are hence central points within the food web.

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