Evolution of sexual conflict in scorpionflies

eLife

Ji-Shen Wang¹  Krzysztof Szpila²  Agnieszka Soszyńska-Maj³  Wiesław Krzemiński⁴  Katarzyna Kopeć⁴  Kornelia Skibińska⁴  Ewa Krzemińska⁴  Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente⁵ 

[1] College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, Dali University, Dali, China;Department of Ecology and Biogeography, Faculty of Biological and Veterinary Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland;Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Hydrobiology, University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland;Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland;Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford, United Kingdom;

关键词: mating strategies;    coercive copulation;    amber;    Mecoptera;    Cretaceous;    Eocene;   

DOI  :  10.7554/eLife.70508

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Sexual conflict – opposite reproductive/genetic interests between sexes – can be a significant driver of insect evolution. Scorpionflies (Insecta: Mecoptera) are models in sexual conflict research due to their large variety of mating practices, including coercive behaviour and nuptial gift provisioning. However, the role of palaeontology in sexual conflict studies remains negligible, namely due to the paucity of well-preserved fossils. Here, we describe three male scorpionflies from Cretaceous and Eocene ambers. The structure of notal and postnotal organs is analysed in extant and extinct forms; a depression below the base of the notal organ in different panorpid species spatially matches the anterior fold of the female’s wing. Based on disparate abdominal configurations and correlations in extant relatives, we posit that each new fossil taxon had a different mating approach along a nuptial gifting-coercive spectrum. The Eocene specimen possesses extreme female clamping abdominal armature, suggesting a degree of sexual coercion greater than in any other known scorpionfly, extinct or extant. The fossil record of abdominal modifications in male scorpionflies documents a relatively late evolution (Eocene) of long notal organs indicating oppressive behaviour toward a female during mating. Our findings reveal a wider array of mating-related morphological specialisations among extinct Panorpoidea, likely reflecting more diversified past mating strategies and behaviours in this group, and represent first steps towards gaining a deep-time perspective on the evolution of sexual conflict over mating among insects.

【 授权许可】

Unknown