Ancient Insects Caught in the Act of Making Love Immortalized for Millions of Years

JAKARTA – Imagine the shame of being caught committing a forbidden act, and that shame is made worse by being trapped in tree sap for millions of years.

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This is the fate that befell several ancient insects from the Middle Cretaceous period who were trapped in a piece of amber while making love. Luckily, bugs know no shame.

Although funny, this incident is useful for scientists. Catching insects while mating is rare in the fossil record, so information about the behavior of ancient animals millions of years ago is still very limited.

A 100 million year old water reed insect (Burmogerris rarus) is the first discovery of mating insects in the fossil record.

As reported by IFL Science, these findings provide rare insight into the dynamics of their marriage.

This amber from northern Myanmar contained seven adult water reed insects, six of which were in pairs, and one male was trapped alone.

Two couples were caught mating, a valuable find. Surprisingly, the male visible on the female’s back was much smaller, contrary to the common belief that males in the animal world tend to be larger.

The male water reed insect attaches itself to the female’s back during the mating process.
Body size: Males are not always larger than females.

Amber can preserve rare moments in ancient animal behavior.

This discovery helps scientists to better understand the evolution of insect behavior and their mating dynamics.

(wbs)