Abstract
Tiger moth courtship involves an intricate interplay of female calling and male responses, involving pheromones, ultrasound, or both. A comparative phylogenetic approach is needed to separate proximal (ecological) from ultimate (evolutionary) explanations for observed behaviors. This study focused on mimetic tiger moths (Ctenuchina and Euchromiina) to provide a phylogeny to understand the evolution of male courtship structures (androconia). Genetic data from one mitochondrial gene (1,173 basepairs [bp] of COI) and two nuclear genes (238 bp of 28S rRNA D1 loop; 650 bp of EF1-) were sampled for 29 species and analyzed using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian methods to estimate phylogenetic relationships. The ancestral reconstruction of androconia was optimized using parsimony and Bayesian approaches. Excluding three species, Euchromiina and Ctenuchina were recovered as reciprocally monophyletic, contradicting earlier molecular phylogenies. The genus Cosmosoma was found to be polyphyletic, as was Eucereon. Reconstruction of androconial structures revealed that these structures were acquired once, with subsequent losses in particular species.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 804-816 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Annals of the Entomological Society of America |
| Volume | 105 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2012 |
Keywords
- androconia
- comparative biology
- life history
- phylogenetic constraint
- sexual selection