A 99-million-year-old planthopper had a feeding tube nearly twice its body length
Researchers identified Cretodorus noonoo, a new planthopper species preserved in amber from Myanmar, with a flexible feeding structure nearly twice as long as its body. The study authors propose it could reach sap deep inside tree-bark cracks, offering a glimpse of feeding strategies in Cretaceous forests.
Bottom line — Thirteen amber fossils show an ancient feeding design with no known equivalent among the insect’s living relatives.
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The study, published in Insects, examined 13 specimens preserved in Kachin amber.
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High-resolution scans showed that folds across the mouthpart were part of its structure; researchers say they likely helped it bend without kinking or collapsing.
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Some fossils preserve the mouthparts bent, which researchers cite as evidence they were flexible in life.
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The researchers say the mouthparts were suited to piercing and sucking, not nectar-feeding; they found no convincing evidence of pollen on the fossils.
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At the tip, two grooved lobes may have opened to anchor the feeding structure against a bark crack, the researchers propose.
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Similar folded feeding structures appeared in several unrelated insect groups during the Cretaceous, according to the study.
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The researchers suggest recurring fires in resin-producing forests may have favoured thicker-barked trees and, in turn, insects able to reach deeper tissues; they present this as a hypothesis.