Modern insects are versatile wing conversationalists. Crickets can scrape a leg against a wing or rub two wings together. Some grasshoppers beat their wings like castanets; others crackle and snap the thin membranes. Many butterfly wings play with light, manipulating it to hide in plain sight or reflecting it in flashes along iridescent or multifaceted surfaces (SN: 6/21/21).
Now, the discovery of the fossilized wing of a grasshopper-like insect suggests this conversation got started as far back as 310 million years ago. The wing structures resemble those of living insects that use light or sound to communicate, researchers report July 8 in Communications Biology.
A fossil (top) preserving wing
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