RESEARCH ARTICLE Floral Assemblages and Patterns of Insect Herbivory during the Permian to Triassic of Northeastern Italy Conrad C. Labandeira1,2,3, Evelyn Kustatscher4,5, Torsten Wappler6* 1 Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013±7012, United States of America, 2 Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States of America, 3 College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, China, 4 Museum of Nature South Tyrol, Bindergasse 1, 39100 Bozen/Bolzano, Italy, a11111 5 Department fuÈr Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften, PalaÈontologie und Geobiologie, Ludwig-Maximilians- UniversitaÈt and Bayerische Staatssammlung fuÈr PalaÈontologie und Geobiologie, Richard-Wagner-Straûe 10, 80333 MuÈnchen, Germany, 6 Steinmann Institute, University of Bonn, Nussallee 8, 53115 Bonn, Germany *
[email protected] OPEN ACCESS Abstract Citation: Labandeira CC, Kustatscher E, Wappler T To discern the effect of the end-Permian (P-Tr) ecological crisis on land, interactions (2016) Floral Assemblages and Patterns of Insect Herbivory during the Permian to Triassic of between plants and their insect herbivores were examined for four time intervals containing Northeastern Italy. PLoS ONE 11(11): e0165205. ten major floras from the Dolomites of northeastern Italy during a Permian±Triassic interval. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0165205 These floras are: (i) the Kungurian Tregiovo Flora; (ii) the Wuchiapingian Bletterbach Flora; Editor: William Oki Wong, Institute of Botany, (iii) three Anisian floras; and (iv) five Ladinian floras. Derived plant±insect interactional data CHINA is based on 4242 plant specimens (1995 Permian, 2247 Triassic) allocated to 86 fossil taxa Received: June 15, 2016 (32 Permian, 56 Triassic), representing lycophytes, sphenophytes, pteridophytes, pterido- Accepted: October 7, 2016 sperms, ginkgophytes, cycadophytes and coniferophytes from 37 million-year interval (23 m.yr.