Sexual dimorphism and plasticity in wing shape in three Diptera

Abstract

20The ability to powered flight facilitated a great evolutionary success of insects and allowed them to occupy 21 various ecological niches. In addition to primary tasks, wings are often involved in various premating 22 behaviors, such as courtship songs and initiation of mating in flight. These specific implications require certain 23 wing morphology, size, and shape. Although wing properties have been extensively studied in Drosophila, a 24 comprehensive understanding of sexual shape dimorphisms and developmental plasticity in wing morphology 25 is missing for other Diptera. To acquire this knowledge, we applied geometric morphometrics and analyzed 26 wing shape in three dipteran species (Drosophila, Ceratitis, and Musca) raised in different environmental 27 conditions. We extensively studied sexual dimorphism and impact of sex and environment on the adult wing 28 morphology. We present allometric and non-allometric shape differences between males and females and 29 show that wing shape is influenced by rearing conditions in a sex dependent manner. We determine common 30 trends in shape alterations and show that the anterior and posterior crossveins are likely to be plastic regions 31 changing substantially at different environmental conditions. We discuss our data in the light of vein 32 development and hypothesize that the observed shape differences might recapitulate different mating 33 behaviors and flight capabilities.

Effect of fruit host on wing morphology in Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae): A first view using geometric morphometrics

“…Most studies use laboratory experiments to identify developmental changes in the morphology of an organism (Hoffmann et al 2005;Carreira et al 2008;Soto et al 2008Soto et al , 2010. However, GM has also been used to measure insect wing shape changes in response to environmental variables (Johansson et al 2009;Benitez et al 2014b;Lemic et al 2016) or sexual dimorphism (Adams & Funk 1997;Valenzuela et al 2004;Gidaszewski et al 2009;Benítez et al 2011Benítez et al , 2013Siomava et al 2017).…”