Differences in spermstorage and remating propensity between adult females of two morphotypes of the Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera: Tephritidae) cryptic species complex.

ABRAHAM, SOLANA; RULL; MENDOZA; LIENDO; DEVESCOVI; RORIZ; KOVALESKI, A; DF SEGURA; VERA

BULLETIN OF ENTOMOLOGICAL RESEARCH

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2014

0007-4853

The South American fruit fly, Anastrepha fraterculus, is a complex of cryptic species19 composed of at least seven morphotypes. Some of them, such as the Peruvian and20 Brazilian 1 morphotypes (which include Argentinean population), exhibit strong pre-21 copulatory isolation, yet it is possible to obtain heterotypic crosses when forcing22 copulation of adults under laboratory conditions. The cross involving Peruvian males23 and Argentinean females produces F1 offspring with reduced viability in terms of24 egg hatch. This low hatchability could be caused by a reduced amount of sperm25 transferred to and stored by females mated with heterotypic males, which in turn26 could affect their post-copulatory behaviour. To test these hypotheses, we27 investigated sperm transfer and female mating and remating behaviour for28 homotypic and heterotypic crosses between adults of two morphotypes (Brazilian29 1 [Argentina] and Peruvian [Peru]) of the A. fraterculus cryptic species complex. As30 reported before, Argentinean males and females mated earlier in the day than the31 other three mating combinations. Peruvian females engaged in shorter copulation32 times than Argentinean females. Peruvian females tended to store smaller quantities33 of sperm than Argentinean females, and almost a half of the crosses involving34 Argentinean males and Peruvian females were unsuccessful (no sperm transfer).35 However, there was no evidence that the cross between Peruvian males and36 Argentinean females resulted in storage of a critically small amount of sperm (posing37 risk of sperm shortage). Argentinean females were more willing to remate than38 Peruvian females, irrespective of male morphotype, but latency to remating was not39 affected by male or female morphotype. This study shows that mating behaviour