The natural history of oviposition on a ginkgophyte fruit from the Middle Jurassic of northeastern China

A distinctive pattern of oviposition lesions occurs on a ginkgoalean seed, Yimaia capituliformis, which likely was inflicted by a kalligrammatid lacewing with a long, sword-like, plant-piercing ovipositor. This newly recorded oviposition type, DT272, occurs in the 165 million-year-old Jiulongshan Formation, of Middle Jurassic age, in Northeastern China. DT272 consists from three to seven, approximately equally spaced lesions with surrounding callus tissue, the fabricator of which targeted fleshy outer and inner tissues of a ginkgophyte fruit. This distinctive damage also is known from the fleshy attachment pad surfaces of basal bennettitalean bracts. Examination of the life history of this probable ginkgoalean-kalligrammatid oviposition interaction indicates that the spacing of the eggs in substrate tissues disfavored inter-larval contact, but little can be said of defense and counterdefense strategies between the plant host and the newly hatched immatures.