Differences in metabolic rate and evaporative water loss associated with sexual dimorphism in thynnine wasps

Differences in metabolic rate and evaporative water loss associated with sexual dimorphism in thynnine wasps.

Species with sexual dimorphism provide powerful study systems for understanding adaptation to different lifestyles as it removes the potentially confounding effects of phylogeny. Thynnine wasps have a stark sexual dimorphism where males fly patrols in search of the flightless, predominantly fossorial females with which to mate. Using flow-through respirometry, we tested the prediction that the ...

Parental Investment and Sexual Dimorphism in Digger Wasps (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae)

Pyrazines Attract Catocheilus Thynnine Wasps

Five previously identified semiochemicals from the sexually deceptive Western Australian hammer orchid Drakaea livida, all showing electrophysiological activity in gas chromatography-electroantennogram detection (EAD) studies, were tested in field bioassays as attractants for a Catocheilus thynnine wasp. Two of these compounds, (3,5,6-trimethylpyrazin-2-yl)methyl 3-methylbutanoate and 2-(3-meth...

Evaporative water loss in scaleless snakes.

1. Rates of water loss were measured in two aberrant scaleless water snakes, Natriu sipedon, and in six normal animals. 2. Pulmocutaneous water loss of the scaleless animals was equal to or less than that of the controls at 20, 27, and 34°C. 3. The thermal dependence of pulmocutaneous water loss in all snakes was low (Q,, = 1.31-1.89). 4. The proportion of total water loss due to cutaneous evap...

Regulation of transcription factors on sexual dimorphism of fig wasps

Fig wasps exhibit extreme intraspecific morphological divergence in the wings, compound eyes, antennae, body color, and size. Corresponding to this, behaviors and lifestyles between two sexes are also different: females can emerge from fig and fly to other fig tree to oviposit and pollinate, while males live inside fig for all their lifetime. Genetic regulation may drive these extreme intraspec...