About 165 million years ago a pair of froghoppers’ mating ritual was rudely interrupted by a volcanic eruption. Fortunately the wind blew these two love bugs into a lake where time and the weight of sediment were able to preserve their passionate moment.
Researchers from the Capital Normal University of China have recently unearthed this fossil from the Jurassic period, making it the oldest fossil of mating insects found. It predates the previously oldest known fossil of copulating insects, two tiny flies caught in amber, by at least 30 million years. Fossils that capture behavior, like prehistoric organisms mating, are incredibly rare, as behavior is not easy to preserve. Most of the 33 fossils found of copulating insects have been preserved in amber and not sediment, making this newly discovered fossil tremendously unique. Since the collection of fossilized insects caught in the act is so sparse, not much is known about how or why the mating rituals of bugs evolved.
This new discovery helps expand the little knowledge we have of insect sex. The fossil contains a previously undiscovered species of froghoppers which the scientists have whimsically named Anthoscytina perpetua. Anthoscytina refers to the name of the genus while perpetua, derived from the Latin word perpet, translates to “eternal love”— a rather fitting name for the species.
Unlike other previously discovered fossils of insect fornication preserved in amber there is no sap in between and around these sedimented fossils. This allows the researchers to observe the exact mechanics of froghopper mating up close with a dissecting microscope.
Despite the novelty of the fossil and species researchers noticed that they were mating in a strikingly similar way to their living descendants. The insects in the fossil were mating belly-to-belly with the male’s sex organ, the aedeagus, inserted into the female’s sex organ, the bursa copulatrix. Modern-day froghoppers also traditionally mate belly-to-belly while holding on to a twig (or occasionally side-to-side if copulating on a leaf). In the fossil the stomach of the male is twisted to make inserting his sex organ easier, a behavior observed in modern-day insects as well. However the team is not completely sure if the fossilized insects were truly mating belly-to-belly or if they were originally side-to-side before natural forces reoriented them.
The froghoppers also look very anatomically similar to ones that are alive today despite the fact that about 165 million years have passed. For example both types of insects have symmetric sex organs. The male aedeagus also curves upward in both the fossilized species as well as the insects that are alive today. This indicates that the male froghopper used to, and still does, rotate and flex its stomach during intercourse, suggesting that they have been copulating the same way for at least 165 million years.
This discovery begs the question of why the mating habits of these insects have not changed at all in the past millions of years. The researchers have not shared their speculations yet, but the answer might be simple: it just works.
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