A Jurassic dipteran pollinator with an extremely long proboscis

In the course of evolution, mutualism between pollinators and plants was likely first developed between insects and gymnosperms, since the occurrence of long-proboscid Mecoptera, Neuroptera and Diptera predates the diversification of flowering plants in the Early Cretaceous by at least 60 million years. Here we report one of the most advanced pre-angiosperm pollinator, the Late Jurassic acrocerid fly Archocyrtus kovalevi (Nartshuk, 1996)....