Extreme adaptations for aquatic ectoparasitism in a Jurassic fly larva

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dc.contributor.authorChen, Jun
dc.contributor.authorWang, Bo
dc.contributor.authorEngel, Michael S.
dc.contributor.authorWappler, Torsten
dc.contributor.authorJarzembowski, Edmund A.
dc.contributor.authorZhang, Haichun
dc.contributor.authorWang, Xiaoli
dc.contributor.authorZheng, Xiaoting
dc.contributor.authorRust, Jes
dc.date.accessioned2014-07-02T16:51:55Z
dc.date.available2014-07-02T16:51:55Z
dc.date.issued2014-06-24
dc.description.abstractThe 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.
dc.description.sponsorshipThe funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication. This paper was supported by the following grant(s): Alexander von Humboldt Foundation CHN 1149090 STP to Bo Wang. National Basic Research Program of China 2012CB821900 to Jun Chen. National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) FundRef identification ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001809 41272013, 41372014, J1210006 to Jun Chen. Natural Scientific Foundation of Shandong Province ZR2013DQ017 to Jun Chen. National Science Foundation (NSF) FundRef identification ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001 DEB-0542909 to Michael S Engel. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) FundRef identification ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002367 CAS 2011T2Z04 to Edmund A Jarzembowski.
dc.identifier.citationJun Chen, Bo Wang, Michael S Engel, Torsten Wappler, Edmund A Jarzembowski, Haichun Zhang, Xiaoli Wang, Xiaoting Zheng, Jes Rust. "Extreme adaptations for aquatic ectoparasitism in a Jurassic fly larva." eLife. 2014; 3: e02844. Published online 2014 June 24. http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02844
dc.identifier.doi10.7554/eLife.02844
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1808/14440
dc.publishereLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
dc.rightsThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
dc.rights.accessrightsopenAccess
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.titleExtreme adaptations for aquatic ectoparasitism in a Jurassic fly larva
dc.typeArticle
dspace.entity.typePublication
kusw.kuauthorEngel, Michael S.
kusw.kudepartmentDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
kusw.oapolicyThis item meets KU Open Access policy criteria.
kusw.oastatusfullparticipation
kusw.oaversionScholarly/refereed, publisher version
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