Extreme adaptations for aquatic ectoparasitism in a Jurassic fly larva

Jun Chen; Bo Wang; Michael S Engel; Torsten Wappler; Edmund A Jarzembowski; Haichun Zhang; Xiaoli Wang; Xiaoting Zheng; Jes Rust

doi:10.7554/eLife.02844

Extreme adaptations for aquatic ectoparasitism in a Jurassic fly larva

Elife. 2014 Jun 24:3:e02844. doi: 10.7554/eLife.02844.

Authors

Jun Chen¹, Bo Wang², Michael S Engel³, Torsten Wappler⁴, Edmund A Jarzembowski⁵, Haichun Zhang⁶, Xiaoli Wang¹, Xiaoting Zheng¹, Jes Rust⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University, Linyi, China.
² Steinmann Institute, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China savantwang@gmail.com.
³ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States.
⁴ Steinmann Institute, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

The reconstruction of ancient insect ectoparasitism is challenging, mostly because of the extreme scarcity of fossils with obvious ectoparasitic features such as sucking-piercing mouthparts and specialized attachment organs. Here we describe a bizarre fly larva (Diptera), Qiyia jurassica gen. et sp. nov., from the Jurassic of China, that represents a stem group of the tabanomorph family Athericidae. Q. jurassica exhibits adaptations to an aquatic habitat. More importantly, it preserves an unusual combination of features including a thoracic sucker with six radial ridges, unique in insects, piercing-sucking mouthparts for fluid feeding, and crocheted ventral prolegs with upward directed bristles for anchoring and movement while submerged. We demonstrate that Q. jurassica was an aquatic ectoparasitic insect, probably feeding on the blood of salamanders. The finding reveals an extreme morphological specialization of fly larvae, and broadens our understanding of the diversity of ectoparasitism in Mesozoic insects.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02844.001.

Keywords: China; Diptera; fossil; urassic.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adaptation, Physiological / physiology*
Animals
China
Diptera / classification
Diptera / physiology*
Fossils
Larva / physiology*

Grants and funding

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.