Lukas VF Novak on Nostr: Extremely well-preserved #fossil #sawfly sheds new light on co-#evolution of #insects ...
Extremely well-preserved #fossil #sawfly sheds new light on co-#evolution of #insects and toxic plants https://phys.org/news/2024-10-extremely-fossil-sawfly-evolution-insects.html paper by Juanita Rodriguez et al.: https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/syen.12653
"They eat the leaves of #Myrtaceae—woody #plants that include eucalypts—because they have mouthparts with which they can separate toxic oils or a chemical detoxification system inside their gut. This enables the #larvae, sometimes called spitfires, to use the oils as a defensive weapon."
"They eat the leaves of #Myrtaceae—woody #plants that include eucalypts—because they have mouthparts with which they can separate toxic oils or a chemical detoxification system inside their gut. This enables the #larvae, sometimes called spitfires, to use the oils as a defensive weapon."