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Copulation behaviour of Glossina pallidipes (Diptera: Muscidae) outside and inside the female, with a discussion of genitalic evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2007

R.D. Briceño ,
W.G. Eberhard  and
A.S. Robinson
R.D. Briceño
Affiliation:
Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, Ciudad Universitaria, Costa Rica
W.G. Eberhard*
Affiliation:
Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, Ciudad Universitaria, Costa Rica Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
A.S. Robinson
Affiliation:
Joint FAO/IAEA Programme of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Insect Pest Control Sub-Programme, International Atomic Energy Agency, Agency's Laboratories, A-2444 Seibersdorf, Austria
*
*Author for correspondence Fax: +506 228 0001 E-mail: william.eberhard@gmail.com
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Abstract

If species-specific male genitalia are courtship devices under sexual selection by cryptic female choice, then species-specific aspects of the morphology and behaviour of male genitalia should often function to stimulate the female during copulation. The morphology and behaviour of the complex, species-specific male genitalia of the tsetse fly, Glossina pallidipes Austen, were determined from both direct observations and dissections of flash-frozen copulating pairs; we found that some male genitalic traits probably function to stimulate the female, while others function to restrain her. The male clamps the ventral surface of the female's abdomen tightly with his powerful cerci. Clamping does not always result in intromission. Clamping bends the female's body wall and her internal reproductive tract sharply, posteriorly and dorsally, and pinches them tightly. The male performed sustained, complex, stereotyped, rhythmic squeezing movements with his cerci that were not necessary to mechanically restrain the female and appeared instead to have a stimulatory function. Six different groups of modified setae on and near the male's genitalia rub directly against particular sites on the female during squeezing. The designs of these setae correlate with the force with which they press on the female and the probable sensitivity of the female surfaces that they contact. As expected under the hypothesis that these structures are under sexual selection by female choice, several traits suspected to have stimulatory functions have diverged in G. pallidipes and its close relative, G. longipalpis. Additional male non-genitalic behaviour during copulation, redescribed more precisely than in previous publications, is also likely to have a courtship function. The elaborate copulatory courtship behaviour and male genitalia may provide the stimuli that previous studies showed to induce female ovulation and resistance to remating.

Keywords

tsetse flygenitalic evolutionsexual selection by cryptic female choicesexually antagonistic coevolution
Type
Research Article
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 97 , Issue 5 , October 2007 , pp. 471 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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