Butterflies (Sort of) in the Time of the Dinosaurs

[Recusant]

Neuroptera, the order of insects that includes the modern lacewings, had a family branch (Kalligrammatidae) that appear to be similar to the butterflies we know today, but they died out about 120 million years ago. Though these insects have been known of for some time, this is the first I've heard of them.

"Butterflies in the Time of Dinosaurs, With Nary a Flower in Sight" | Scientific American

Structural diversity among the Kalligrammatidae

Mesozoic butterflies seem to have appeared so similar to today's incarnation that at a few paces you'd probably not notice a difference. They evolved 165 million years ago, disappearing just 45 million years later, a full 45 million years before the first modern caterpillar decided to grow up and become a beee-youuuu-tee-ful butterfly. Again.

Oh, and these first butterflies did not frequent flowers, because flowers were still a gleam in Mother Nature's eye. The first definite floral fossil dates from 125 million years ago – about the time these ancient butterflies were going extinct – but the first flower must have evolved at least a little before that. The flowers that did exist were small, inconspicuous, and aquatic with short, butterfly-unfriendly floral tubes.

Instead, these Jurassic butterflies seem to have alighted on seed-bearing, cone-making trees. Though they did not make flowers, these plants did craft cones studded with long tubes ending in nectar and pollen. And nectar + flying insect, evidently, are the prerequisites for evolution to cook up a butterfly.

[Continues . . .]

The story has a link to a free paper from a couple of years ago about the Kalligrammatidae: "Mesozoic lacewings from China provide phylogenetic insight into evolution of the Kalligrammatidae (Neuroptera)"

[Dave]

Thanjs, Recusant, good link, fascinating. Nothing new, eh?

Passed to a butterly fan friend.

[Harmonie]

I was afraid that I was going to end up reading that they were the size of pterodactyls or something.  (I'd never leave my house again)

Interesting, nevertheless, I'll have to tell my mom about this since she loves butterflies (for reasons I do not understand)

[Magdalena]

Interesting, Recusant, very interesting.