Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T07:07:08.937Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

PLOIDY DOES NOT AFFECT FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY IN THE CARPENTER BEE (HYMENOPTERA: ANTHOPHORIDAE)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

Shin-ichi Kudo*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Naruto University of Education, Naruto, Tokushima, 772-8502 Japan.
Sachiko Mori
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Naruto University of Education, Naruto, Tokushima, 772-8502 Japan.
*
1 Author to whom all corresponding should be addressed (E-mail: [email protected]).

Extract

Random deviations from perfect symmetry in bilateral traits, fluctuating asymmetry, are thought to reflect developmental stability: the ability of an individual to buffer against genetic and (or) environmental stress during development (Palmer and Strobeck 1986). Fluctuating asymmetry is often regarded as an indicator of individual quality or fitness (Møller and Swaddle 1997); however, factors underlying fluctuating asymmetry are not well understood (Markow 1995). It has been suggested that heterozygosity, ploidy, and genomic coadaptation (hybridization) are genetic factors affecting the magnitude of fluctuating asymmetry (Palmer and Strobeck 1986; Markow 1995; Møller and Swaddle 1997). Insects having a haplodiploid sex-determining mechanism present opportunities to examine the relationship between ploidy and fluctuating asymmetry. In hymenopterans, females are diploid and males haploid. Thus the effects of ploidy can be investigated by contrasting males and females within a population (e.g., Clarke 1997). Diploid females, in which deleterious recessives reducing developmental stability could be masked, may be expected to have smaller asymmetry than haploid males (e.g., Brückner 1976; Smith et al. 1997). In this paper, we compare the level of fluctuating asymmetry in forewing venation of males to that of females in the carpenter bee Xylocopa appendiculata circumvolans Smith.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balmford, A., Jones, I.L., Thomas, A.L.R. 1993. On avian asymmetry: evidence of natural selection for symmetrical tails and wings in birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 252: 245–51Google Scholar
Brückner, D. 1976. The influence of genetic variability on wing symmetry in honeybees (Apis mellifera). Evolution 30: 100–8Google ScholarPubMed
Clarke, G.M. 1997. The genetic basis of developmental stability. III. Haplo-diploidy: are males more unstable than females? Evolution 51: 2021–8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clarke, G.M., Oldroyd, B.P. 1996. The genetic basis of developmental stability in Apis mellifera. II. Relationships between character size, asymmetry and single-locus heterozygosity. Genetica 97: 211–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, G.M., Oldroyd, B.P., Hunt, P. 1992. The genetic basis of developmental stability in Apis mellifera: heterozygosity versus genic balance. Evolution 46: 753–62CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crespi, B.J., Vanderkist, B.A. 1997. Fluctuating asymmetry in vestigial and functional traits of a haplodiploid insect. Heredity 79: 624–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leung, B., Forbes, M.R. 1997. Modelling fluctuating asymmetry in relation to stress and fitness. Oikos 78: 397405CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markow, T.A. 1995. Evolutionary ecology and developmental instability. Annual Review of Entomology 40: 105–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Møller, A.P., Swaddle, J.P. 1997. Asymmetry, developmental stability and evolution. Oxford: Oxford University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, A.R., Strobeck, C. 1986. Fluctuating asymmetry: measurement, analysis, patterns. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 17: 392421CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, D.R., Crespi, B.J., Bookstein, F.L. 1997. Fluctuating asymmetry in the honey bee, Apis mellifera: effects of ploidy and hybridization. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 10: 551–74Google Scholar