Archaboilus

MEET THE ANIMAL

Meet Archaboilus

Archaboilus was an insect relative of katydids, living long before modern gardens and lawns. A species called Archaboilus musicus came from Middle Jurassic rocks at Daohugou in China. Its best-known fossil is an incomplete pair of male forewings. Researchers estimated a forewing length of about 72 millimeters. That measures one reconstructed wing, not the length of the whole insect. [D1]

Tiny features on those wings helped researchers work out how the animal might have made a call. A row of teeth could rub against a structure on the other wing. Comparisons with living insects produced a model of a musical tone. The researchers interpreted singing as a way to attract a mate, but no fossil records the insect actually singing or meeting a partner. [D3]

A2026 study compared several Jurassic insects and found more than one kind of sound-making arrangement. Another species referred to Archaboilus, A. polyneurus, had tooth-spacing patterns consistent with changing its call. A. musicus remains a low-frequency example; findings about ultrasonic calls in other insects do not turn every member of this genus into an ultrasonic singer. Fossil anatomy supplies clues, while the sound itself remains a reconstruction. [D2]