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Mating Behaviour and Copulatory Mechanism in the Scorpionfly Neopanorpa longiprocessa (Mecoptera: Panorpidae)

Sexual conflict during copulation may drive morphological and behavioral evolution in insects. Although nuptial feeding behaviour is well studied in Panorpa, whether this behaviour is universal in Panorpidae remains unknown. The scorpionfly Neopanorpa longiprocessa Hua & Chou, 1997 was investiga...

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Autores principales: Zhong, Wen, Hua, Baozhen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3783485/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24086373
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0074781
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author Zhong, Wen
Hua, Baozhen
author_facet Zhong, Wen
Hua, Baozhen
author_sort Zhong, Wen
collection PubMed
description Sexual conflict during copulation may drive morphological and behavioral evolution in insects. Although nuptial feeding behaviour is well studied in Panorpa, whether this behaviour is universal in Panorpidae remains unknown. The scorpionfly Neopanorpa longiprocessa Hua & Chou, 1997 was investigated for its mating behaviour, functional morphology of the notal organ, and external genitalia using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the mating behaviour is not associated with nuptial feeding in N. longiprocessa. The morphological basis of this non-nuptial copulation is likely related to the developed notal organ of the male. The notal organ serves a function to seize wings of the female during copulation. Only males that succeed in seizing the female with the notal organ are able to establish genital contact and copulate. The male genitalia exhibit distinct species-specific modification. The epandrium (tergum IX) has evolved a pair of ventral bulbs to grasp the subgenital plate of the female. The hypandrium (sternum IX) has a pair of dorsal processes to control the abdominal end of the female. These results indicate that nuptial feeding is not a universal behaviour in Panorpidae. Presumably, these grasping apparatuses compensate the scorpionflies that fail to provide nuptial gifts, as exemplified by N. longiprocessa.
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spelling pubmed-37834852013-10-01 Mating Behaviour and Copulatory Mechanism in the Scorpionfly Neopanorpa longiprocessa (Mecoptera: Panorpidae) Zhong, Wen Hua, Baozhen PLoS One Research Article Sexual conflict during copulation may drive morphological and behavioral evolution in insects. Although nuptial feeding behaviour is well studied in Panorpa, whether this behaviour is universal in Panorpidae remains unknown. The scorpionfly Neopanorpa longiprocessa Hua & Chou, 1997 was investigated for its mating behaviour, functional morphology of the notal organ, and external genitalia using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the mating behaviour is not associated with nuptial feeding in N. longiprocessa. The morphological basis of this non-nuptial copulation is likely related to the developed notal organ of the male. The notal organ serves a function to seize wings of the female during copulation. Only males that succeed in seizing the female with the notal organ are able to establish genital contact and copulate. The male genitalia exhibit distinct species-specific modification. The epandrium (tergum IX) has evolved a pair of ventral bulbs to grasp the subgenital plate of the female. The hypandrium (sternum IX) has a pair of dorsal processes to control the abdominal end of the female. These results indicate that nuptial feeding is not a universal behaviour in Panorpidae. Presumably, these grasping apparatuses compensate the scorpionflies that fail to provide nuptial gifts, as exemplified by N. longiprocessa. Public Library of Science 2013-09-25 /pmc/articles/PMC3783485/ /pubmed/24086373 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0074781 Text en © 2013 Zhong, Hua http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zhong, Wen
Hua, Baozhen
Mating Behaviour and Copulatory Mechanism in the Scorpionfly Neopanorpa longiprocessa (Mecoptera: Panorpidae)
title Mating Behaviour and Copulatory Mechanism in the Scorpionfly Neopanorpa longiprocessa (Mecoptera: Panorpidae)
title_full Mating Behaviour and Copulatory Mechanism in the Scorpionfly Neopanorpa longiprocessa (Mecoptera: Panorpidae)
title_fullStr Mating Behaviour and Copulatory Mechanism in the Scorpionfly Neopanorpa longiprocessa (Mecoptera: Panorpidae)
title_full_unstemmed Mating Behaviour and Copulatory Mechanism in the Scorpionfly Neopanorpa longiprocessa (Mecoptera: Panorpidae)
title_short Mating Behaviour and Copulatory Mechanism in the Scorpionfly Neopanorpa longiprocessa (Mecoptera: Panorpidae)
title_sort mating behaviour and copulatory mechanism in the scorpionfly neopanorpa longiprocessa (mecoptera: panorpidae)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3783485/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24086373
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0074781
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