Ecosystems are defined by the community of living organisms and how they interact together and with their environment. Insects and plants are key taxa in terrestrial ecosystems and their network determines the trophic structure of the environment. However, what drives the interactions between plants and insects in modern and fossil ecosystems is not well understood. In this study, we analyzed insect damage richness and frequency in 5000 fossil leaves deposited during the early Miocene at 20–17 Ma along a latitudinal gradient from Europe (two localities in Czech Republic) to Turkey (one locality) in a temperate climate setting. Damage frequency was mainly linked with abiotic factors (temperature, precipitation seasonality) whereas damage richness was mainly linked with biotic factors (plant richness, biome). Univariate analysis of insect damage types consistently suggested closer trophic similarity between the Mediterranean and either the one or the other Central European plant assemblage. In contrast, multivariate analysis of all insect damage types indicated closer similarity between the two Central European sites highlighting the importance of biogeographic legacy and geographic closeness to the plant-insect interaction patterns. Our results underscore the high complexity of the herbivory network and call for careful interpretations of plant-insect interaction patterns in palaeoecological studies. Finally, comparing the trophic similarity between different localities using total evidence plots as done in this work might be a promising complementary method in comparative studies of plant-insect interactions.

生态系统是由生物群落以及它们如何相互作用以及如何与环境相互作用来定义的。昆虫和植物是陆地生态系统中的重要分类单元，它们的网络决定了环境的营养结构。然而，对于驱动现代植物化石和化石生态系统中植物与昆虫之间相互作用的原因尚不清楚。在这项研究中，我们分析了中新世初期20-17 Ma期间沉积的5000个化石叶子中昆虫的危害程度和发生频率，这些叶子是在温带气候环境下从欧洲（捷克共和国的两个地方）到土耳其（一个地方）的纬度梯度分布的。破坏频率主要与非生物因素（温度，降水季节）相关，而破坏丰富度主要与生物因素（植物丰富度，生物群落）有关。对昆虫危害类型的单变量分析始终表明，地中海植物与一种或另一种中欧植物组合之间的营养相似性更高。相比之下，对所有昆虫危害类型的多变量分析表明，中欧两个地点之间的相似度更高，突显了生物地理遗产的重要性以及地理区域对植物-昆虫相互作用模式的重要性。我们的结果强调了草食动物网络的高度复杂性，并呼吁对古生态学研究中植物-昆虫相互作用模式进行仔细的解释。最后，