Journal article
Stronger interspecific sexual differences may be favored when females search for mates in the presence of congeners
Current research in insect science, Vol.5, 100084
2024
DOI: 10.1016/j.cris.2024.100084
Abstract
•Male Strauzia flies that share host plants with other Strauzia species tend to have unique wing patterns compared to species that do not share hosts.•Male wing shape is conserved among non-host sharing Strauzia, but shape differs more than expected among host-sharing species.•Similar trends of male wing pattern changes occur in Eutreta, another Tephritid genus where multiple species share plant hosts and males are territorial.
Why are some species sexually dimorphic while other closely related species are not? While all females in genus Strauzia share a multiply-banded wing pattern typical of many other true fruit flies, males of four species have noticeably elongated wings with banding patterns “coalesced” into a continuous dark streak across much of the wing. We take an integrative phylogenetic approach to explore the evolution of this dimorphism and develop general hypotheses underlying the evolution of wing dimorphism in flies. We find that the origin of coalesced and other darkened male wing patterns correlate with the inferred origin of host plant sharing in Strauzia. While wing shape among non-host-sharing species tended to be conserved across the phylogeny, shapes of male wings for Strauzia species sharing the same host plant were more different from one another than expected under Brownian models of evolution and overall rates of wing shape change differed between non-host-sharing species and host-sharing species. A survey of North American Tephritidae finds just three other genera with specialist species that share host plants. Host-sharing species in these genera also have wing patterns unusual for each genus. Only genus Eutreta is like Strauzia in having the unusual wing patterns only in males, and of genera that have multiple species sharing hosts, only in Eutreta and Strauzia do males hold territories while females search for mates. We hypothesize that in species that share host plants, those where females actively search for males in the presence of congeners may be more likely to evolve sexually dimorphic wing patterns.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Stronger interspecific sexual differences may be favored when females search for mates in the presence of congeners
- Creators
- Alaine C. Hippee - University of IowaMarc A. Beer - Washington State UniversityAllen L. Norrbom - National Museum of Natural HistoryAndrew A. Forbes - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Current research in insect science, Vol.5, 100084
- Publisher
- Elsevier B.V
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.cris.2024.100084
- ISSN
- 2666-5158
- eISSN
- 2666-5158
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2024
- Academic Unit
- Biology; University College Courses
- Record Identifier
- 9984628222202771
Metrics
1 Record Views