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Roach nectarivory, gymnosperm and earliest flower pollination evidence from Cretaceous ambers

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Abstract

Direct fossil evidence for Mesozoic flower pollination is scarce. Umenocoleoid micro-cockroaches Lepidopterix vegrandis gen. et sp. n. (Lebanese amber) and Antophiloblatta hispida gen. et sp. n. (Myanmar amber) possess size, form, complex coloration pattern and surface structure, cryptic with potentially entomophilous angiosperms Tropidogyne pentaptera Poinar, 2017 and Antiquifloris latifibris Poinar et Buckley, 2016 flower petals and sepals. Putative pollen grains attached to the latter adult indicates pollination, while reduced mouthparts suggest fluid nectar feeding. Spongistoma angusta gen. et sp. n. (Myanmar amber) has a narrow body and mandibles nearly entirely reduced with a unique “proboscis” forming sponging/ sucking mouthparts. In addition putative Classopolis Pflug, 1953 gymnosperm pollen is attached to adults and immature individuals of Vzrkadlenie miso gen. et sp. n. (Myanmar amber). Together with possible angiosperm pollination by Formicamendax vrsanskyi Hinkelman, 2019 and cycas pollination by immature individuals of alienopterid larvae, the evidence for early cockroach pollination is now substantial. Additionally unique is the forewing surface of L. vegrandis with photonic crystal structures within the scales.

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Acknowledgments

We thank reviewers for their valuable suggestions, Nikolaj Vršanský (private Bratislava), Bo Wang (NIGPAS Nanjing), Sieghard Ellenberger (private Germany), Tong Bao (University of Bonn) and Dany Azar (LU Bayeruth), Kamil Fekete (ESISAS Bratislava) for collecting and providing rare specimens and for technical help. We thank Elena Lukashevich (PINRAS Moscow) and Vladimir Blagoderov (NMS Edinburgh) for syninclusion determination. This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contracts no. APVV-0436-12; VEGA 2/0139/17, 2/0042/18 and by UNESCO-Amba/ MVTS supporting grant of Presidium of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Research at KIT was supported by the project UFO 2 (BMBF; 05K2012). We acknowledge the KIT light source for provision of instruments at their beamlines and we would like to thank the Institute for Beam Physics and Technology (IBPT) for the operation of the storage ring, the Karlsruhe Research Accelerator (KARA).

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P.V. (senior author) designed research and collected 2 adults in a local amber market; P.V., H.S. and J.H. collected data and wrote the paper; P.V., L.V. (V. miso including pseudo-inclusions, butterflies) H.S. (L. vegrandis, A. hispida) and J.H. (S. angusta) performed photo documentation, systematic evaluation and drawings of species; M.K. and T.K. performed phylogenetic analysis. M.Z. & T.v.d.K. performed synchrotron scans and post-processed tomographic data.

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Correspondence to Peter Vršanský.

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Sendi, H., Hinkelman, J., Vršanská, L. et al. Roach nectarivory, gymnosperm and earliest flower pollination evidence from Cretaceous ambers. Biologia 75, 1613–1630 (2020). https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-019-00412-x

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