Kingdom Animalia Superfamily Phyllioidea Species E. messelensis Phylum Arthropoda Order Phasmids | Class Insecta Family Phylliidae Scientific name Eophyllium messelensis Rank Genus | |
Similar Phasmids, Chitoniscus, Phyllium celebicum, Areolatae, Eobothus | ||
Leaf insect eophyllium messelensis
Eophyllium is an extinct monotypic genus of the Phasmatodea, a type of insect ancestral to the modern Phylliidae. These insects mimic the shape of leaves for camouflage, with a single species, Eophyllium messelensis.
A full body fossil of E. messelensis was recovered from a 47-million-year-old fossil lake bed in Germany. The 6-cm-long fossil has a body identical in shape to fossil leaves recovered from the same stratum.
The genitalia of the fossil are nearly identical to those of modern leaf insects, indicating the species has changed little over the millennia. One area in which E. messelensis differs from its modern descendants is in its front legs, which do not have flattened, leaf-like projections that modern leaf insects use to cover their heads.