Around 165 million years ago, some insects in what is now northeastern China developed an extraordinary trick: they evolved wings that looked almost identical to the leaves of the plants they lived on.
A new study has revealed the first clear fossil evidence of insects preserved side by side with the very plants they mimicked, offering rare insight into the ancient origins of camouflage.
The fossils were unearthed from the Daohugou Biota in Inner Mongolia, a site famous for its beautifully preserved Jurassic life.
Researchers led by Prof. Huang Diying from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology identified three species of ancient relatives of grasshoppers and crickets, belonging to the group Prophalangopsidae.
These insects had wings with vein patterns and markings that copied the fronds of Anomozamites, a common seed plant from the extinct bennettitale family.
The resemblance was so precise that when the insects folded their wings, they created the illusion of complete leaves.
One species, Aboilus stratosus, had bands across its wings that mirrored the rectangular patterns of Anomozamites fronds.
Another, Sigmaboilus, had stripes that matched half of a frond, so that when both wings rested together, they looked like a perfect leaf with leaflets arranged along a central stem.
This kind of leaf mimicry is common among modern insects such as katydids, stick insects, and moths, but finding direct fossil evidence of it has long been difficult.
Small, delicate insect wings rarely fossilize, and until now scientists lacked examples where both the insect and its plant “model” were preserved together in the same rock.
The discovery also suggests a close ecological relationship between the insects and their host plants. Fossil leaves of Anomozamites from the same beds show bite marks along their edges, likely caused by the very insects that mimicked them.
By blending in with their food source, these Jurassic insects could avoid being eaten themselves. At the time, predators included small dinosaurs that climbed trees, insect-hunting mammals, and flying pterosaurs—all of which would have posed a threat.
Statistical comparisons show that both the leaf-mimicking insects and Anomozamites plants followed a similar pattern of rise and decline: both groups peaked in the Middle Jurassic and dwindled by the Early Cretaceous. This parallel history points to an intertwined ecological relationship.
Over millions of years, insect mimicry strategies evolved alongside changes in plant life and predator pressures. In the later Cenozoic era, after birds diversified, katydids and other orthopterans developed even more sophisticated disguises, such as imitating dried or partially eaten leaves.
Today, grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids remain some of the most abundant herbivores on Earth.
These new Jurassic fossils show that the art of camouflage has deep evolutionary roots, shaped by a constant battle between hungry predators and the insects that needed to stay hidden.
