Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T09:08:08.699Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sex Ratio Variation in the Intertidal Isopod, Jaera Albifrons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Stuart B. Piertney  and
Gary R. Carvalho
Stuart B. Piertney
Affiliation:
Marine and Fisheries Genetics Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, University College of Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP.
Gary R. Carvalho
Affiliation:
Marine and Fisheries Genetics Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, University College of Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Thirty ‘rock-populations’ of the intertidal isopod, Jaera albifrons (Isopoda: Asellota), from South Wales area were found to display a significant and persistent sex ratio bias, with females outnumbering males by up to 12 to 1. This thelygeny was not mirrored in broods that were isolated in aquaria after insemination, nor in broods that developed under various temperature and light regimes. Such a discrepancy suggests that the mechanism generating sex ratio biases in natural populations is not innate, nor is influenced by cytoplasmic or environmental factors. The possible causes of thelygeny in natural populations are discussed.

Type
Short Communications
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , August 1996 , pp. 825 - 828
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arrontes, J., 1992. Sex-ratio variation in an intertidal isopod. Oikos, 63, 131–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battaglia, B. & Malesani, L., 1962. Gli effetti della selezione operata in assenza di inincrocio sugli spostamenti del rapporto sessi in Tisbe gracilis (Copepoda, Harpacticoida). Atti del’ Accadetnia Nazionale dei Lincei Rendiconti, Series 8, 32, 251–257.Google Scholar
Bull, J.J., 1983. Evolution of sex determining mechanisms. Menlo, California: Benjamin/Cummings.Google Scholar
Bulnheim, H.-P., 1978. Variability of the modes of sex determination in littoral amphipods. In Marine organisms: genetics, ecology and evolution (ed. B., Battaglia and J.A., Beardmore). London: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Delattin, G., 1949. Ein farbgen als relativer geschlechts realisator bei Porcellio scaber. Naturwissenschaften. Berlin, 36, 89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, R.A., 1958. The genetical theory of natural selection, 2nd ed. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Heath, D.J. & Ratford, J.R., 1990. The inheritance of sex ratio in the isopod Sphaeroma rugicauda. Heredity. London, 64, 419–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurst, L.D., 1993. The incidences, mechanisms and evolution of cytoplasmic sex ratio distorters in animals. Biological Reviews, 68, 121–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, M.B., 1971. Problems of speciation in some peracarid Crustacea. PhD thesis, University of Wales.Google Scholar
Jones, M.B. & Naylor, E., 1971. Breeding and bionomics of the British members of the Jaera albifrons group of species (Isopoda: Asellota). Journal of Zoology, 165, 183–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khazaeli, A.A. & Heath, D.J., 1979. Colour polymorphism, selection and the sex ratio in the isopod Sphaeroma rugicauda (Leach). Heredity. London, 41, 187–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niiyama, H., 1959. A comparative study of the chromosomes in decapods, isopods and amphipods, with some remarks on cytotaxonomy and sex-determination in the Crustacea. Memoirs of the Faculty of Fisheries, Hokkaido University, 7, 1–71.Google Scholar
Piertney, S.B., 1994. Microgeographic genetic differentiation in the intertidal isopod, Jaera albifrons Leach. PhD thesis, University of Wales.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piertney, S.B. & Carvalho, G.R., 1994. Microgeographic genetic differentiation in the intertidal isopod Jaera albifrons Leach. I. Spatial distribution of allozyme variation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 256, 195–201.Google Scholar
Piertney, S.B. & Carvalho, G.R., 1995. Microgeographic genetic differentiation in the intertidal isopod, Jaera albifrons Leach. II. Temporal variation in allele frequencies. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 188, 277–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sokal, R.R. & Rohlf, F.J., 1981. Biometry, 2nd ed. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Steele, D.H. & Steele, V.J., 1972. The biology of Jaera spp. (Crustacea, Isopoda) in the northwestern Atlantic. I. Jaera ischiosetosa. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 50, 205–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar