Evidence of Insect-plant Interactions From the Upper Gondwana Sequence (Lower Cretaceous) in the Rajmahal Basin, India

Abstract

The present paper reports significant evidence of insect-plant interactions in the Upper Gondwana sequence (Early Cretaceous) from various localities of the Rajmahal Formation in the Rajmahal Basin of Jharkhand State, India. This evidence is among the first Early Cretaceous evidence of phytophagy and is recognised by various types of feeding traces namely continuous marginal, discontinuous marginal and non-marginal. These traces may indicate herbivory of pinnate leaves ofPtilophyllurn (Bennettitales) and these herbivores may have assisted the plants in pollination. Additional evidence for a plant-insect relationship is on the lamina o f Phyllopteroides pinnae (Osmundaceae) which was used for ovipostional sites containing oval egg impressions that occur along the veins in the leaf lamina. Further, the evidence of insect galls recognised on a Nipaniophyllurn (Pentoxylales) leaf surface indicates that the lamina was used as a shelter habitat for insect larvae. These galls show some similarity with extinct leaf galls reported on Glossopteris (Glossopteridales) leaves recorded from the Permian of Kashmir Himalaya, India as well as on galls on Sophora (Fabaceae) and Eomangferophyllum (Anacardiaceae) leaves from the Neogene flora of India. Similar spherical leaf galls are induced by Diptera (Cecidomyiidae) and Hymenoptera (Pteromalidae) on leaves of modern Anadenanthera peregrina from Brazil. The present findings from the Upper Gondwana Sequence of India reveals that these types of insect-plant relationships existed during the Gondwana time and continued up to the recent, perhaps having a role in the co-evolution of present flora and fauna.