Pre-Mating Reproductive Isolation in Tiger Beetles (Carabidae: Cicindelinae): an Examination of the Role of Visual and Morphological Feedback

Sexual dimorphism in the Anatolian endemic tiger beetle, Cephalota circumdata cappadocica Franzen, 1996 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae): a study showing the effectiveness of geometric morphometrics

“…Of the very large number of geometric morphometrics studies on insect species (Tatsuta et al, 2018), relatively few have examined tiger beetles (Jones & Conner, 2018). As far as is known, no Anatolian tiger beetle has been analyzed via geometrics morphometrics in terms of sexually dimorphic features.…”

“…Of these, less familiar is the use of geometric morphometrics to detect the degree of sexual dimorphism in species of tiger beetles except for recent work on the four tiger beetle species. Jones & Conner (2018) quantified shape differences in the mandibles of these species via geometric morphometric technique to look at both intraspecific sexual dimorphism as well as interspecific differences.…”

Morphological variability in Lophyra flexuosa (Fabricius, 1787) (Coleoptera, Cicindelidae) in desert countries is affected by sexual dimorphism and geographic aspect

“…In the case of tiger beetles (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae), a family of predatory insects (Duran & Gough, 2020; López‐López & Vogler, 2017) with more than 2800 species distributed worldwide except polar regions and some oceanic islands (Cassola & Pearson, 2000; Wiesner, 2020), little is known about morphometric variability within particular species, except some data concerning sexual dimorphism. Generally, it is known that females are larger and wider than males (Espinoza‐Donoso et al, 2020; Jaskuła, 2005; Pearson & Vogler, 2001); in some genera different size and shape of labrum and mandibles between sexes was found too (Cassola & Bouyer, 2007; Jones & Conner, 2018; Kritsky & Simon, 1995). Doğan Sarikaya et al (2020) noted differences in shape and size of head and pronotum between males and females of tiger beetles.…”

Geographic Life History Differences Predict Genomic Divergence Better than Mitochondrial Barcodes or Phenotype

“…A recent study [75] evaluated pre-mating reproductive isolating mechanisms in tiger beetles. They assessed whether visual cues or "lock-and-key" mechanisms [76,77] were being utilized to prevent inter-species matings and the potential waste of gametes.…”

“…They found that beetles were less selective than expected, and males of C. sedecimpunctata did not discriminate between its own species or C. ocellata when seeking mating partners. It is unclear what proportion of inter-species matings produce viable offspring because apparent tiger beetle hybrids are rarely discovered, but see [78] and lab interbreeding, while possible, has been rarely attempted [75,79]. In addition, one study found that females ejected the spermatophore after mating with a male of a closely related species [80].…”