Copulatory behaviour and the process of intromission in Anastrepha ludens (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Abstract

Complex genitalia occur in many arthropods and in some species extreme female morphologies lead to serious mechanical difficulties for males. Tephritid flies offer examples of such complex genitalia. Because of their economic importance and the extensive use of sterile male releases for tephritid control in Texas and Mexico, studies have been done on various aspects of their basic reproductive biology, but the process of intromission has received little attention. The distiphallus of the male of Anastrepha ludens is complex. One membranous sac on the distiphallus is capable of rhythmic cycles of inflation and deflation. inflations of the sac near the base of the distiphallus probably help propel the aedeagus deeper into the female along with stiffening of the basiphallus and may drive the genital rod (which does not transfer sperm) into the ventral receptacle. We were unable to establish an association between some of the behaviours displayed by males during mating and intromission process. Rev. Biol. Trop. 59 (1): 291-297. Epub 2011 March 01.

Copula Duration, Insemination, and Sperm Allocation in Anastrepha ludens (Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…Because the conformation of the endophallic sclerites varies among species, it seems likely that their operation may vary among species as well. For A. ludens, the func tional relationship between the male and female or gans at intromission has been described by Briceno et al (2010). The aedeagus might be described as a long flexible straw (basiphallus) with a leaky balloon (dis tiphallus) attached to the end.…”

“…8), dragging the flaccid distiphallus along with it. Briceno et al (2010) found that at insemina tion, the distiphallus was brought into juxtaposition with the openings to the ventral receptacle and sperrnathecae. With these antecedents, we examined July 2014 T h o m a s e t a l .…”

“…Intromission in the medfly C. capitata has been described by Eberhard and Pereira (1995) and in A. ludens by Briceno et al (2010). Figure 9 shows the aedeagus in position during insemination.…”

“…This is sim ilar to the process described in the medfly (Marchini et al 2001), wherein the cleft is also oriented toward the ventral receptacle while the two apical gonopores are oriented toward the spermathecal ducts. In A. ludens, there is a structure in this analogous position called the "trumpet" by Briceno et al (2010), which presumably performs the same function. In our prep arations, it is oriented toward the tubercle where the spermathecal ducts insert.…”

Two intromittent organs inZorotypus caudelli(Insecta, Zoraptera): the paradoxical coexistence of an extremely long tube and a large spermatophore

“…Males have to accommodate this and move it during copulation without tangling, injury, and breakage. These requirements appear to be problematic, and lacking anatomical specializations and/or mechanisms for accommodation and efficient manipulation of elongated genitalia could represent an impeding factor for the evolution of such genitalia (Briceño et al ., ; Eberhard, ; Gack & Peschke, ; Matsumura & Yoshizawa, , ). This raises the question: how were apparent constraints circumvented several times in insects to allow for the evolution of hyper elongated genitalia?…”