An international team of scientists with the participation of Dr Jacek Szwedo, Professor at the University of Gdansk’s Department of Biology, has prepared a publication on the evolutionary history of cicadas. An article describing the research in Myanmar in southern Asia was published in Nature Communications. The scientists’ findings are based on inclusions of cicadas in amber.

Scientists from China, Poland, Germany, the US and Australia analysed the evolution of Cicadoidea from the Mesozoic period, focusing on their morphology, behaviour and ecology. They highlighted the adaptive features and interactions of cicadas with the environment.

The discovery of fossils of the last larval and moulting stages of cicadas with preserved burrowing forelegs and stinging-sucking mouth apparatuses indicates that they probably presented a subterranean lifestyle at least by the mid-Cretaceous. They occupied a subterranean ecological niche by feeding on roots.

Read more: https://ug.edu.pl/news/pl/6494/prof-jacek-szwedo-z-publikacja-w-nature-communications