A praying mantis preserved in amber for about 98 million years had leaf-like extensions on its abdomen, offering the earliest clear fossil evidence of plant-leaf mimicry in mantises, according to ScienceAlert.
Researchers named the species Folimantis hyalinala in a study published in New Phytologist. Its abdominal structures resemble the leaves of the extinct plant Selaginella grimaldii, also known from amber found in the same region of what is now Myanmar.
Leaf-like anatomy, not actual leaves
The fossil’s unusual features are extensions of the insect’s body, rather than plant leaves attached to it. Its transparent wings leave the leaf-like abdominal structures visible.
The genus name Folimantis means leaf mantis, while hyalinala refers to its glass-like wings, ScienceAlert reported. Paleoentomologist Hongru Yang and colleagues said this resemblance to Selaginella had not previously been reported and is not known among living mantises.
The proposed camouflage could have helped the insect avoid predators and approach prey. Those advantages are an evolutionary interpretation of the anatomy, not behavior directly observed in the fossil.
A clue to how mantis camouflage evolved
Many living plant-mimicking mantises have specialized structures on several body parts. In this fossil, the leaf-like extensions occur only on the abdomen.
That pattern raises the possibility that plant mimicry in mantises began at the rear of the body before evolving elsewhere. It is a hypothesis suggested by the specimen, rather than proof of a single evolutionary sequence for all mantises.
The discovery dates clear evidence of leaf mimicry in mantises to the mid-Cretaceous. It does not establish the first appearance of camouflage in insects generally: ScienceAlert notes that other insect groups also evolved plant-like features.
Myanmar amber carries ethical concerns
ScienceAlert also highlighted concerns about the connection between Myanmar’s amber trade and armed conflict. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology called in 2021 for a moratorium on publishing research on amber fossils obtained from Myanmar sources after January of that year.
According to the report, collector Fangyuan Xia acquired this specimen in 2015 and donated it that year to the insect evolution laboratory at Capital Normal University in Beijing. That acquisition predates the cutoff cited in the society’s call, although it does not resolve the wider ethical debate surrounding Myanmar amber.
