Journal of Insect Science: Vol. 7 | Article 61

Few reports have been published on cytogenetics in crickets of the subfamily Nemobiinae. Within the Neotropical region the karyotypes of only two species are known, both of them belonging to the genus Phoremia. In the present paper, chromosomes of a third Neotropical species, Zucchiella atlanticaMello 1990 (Orthoptera: Trigonidiidae), have been studied and a cytological review of other species of that subfamily is presented. Zucchiella atlantica shows 2n ♂ = 22 +XO and 2n ♀ = 22 + XX which suggests an ancestral condition within the subfamily as the diploid number in all the species previously studied ranges from 2n ♂ = 7 to 2n ♀ = 21. In Orthoptera those species with high chromosome numbers tend to show reduction in their chromosomal numbers by means of centric fusions rather than to increase chromosomal numbers, due to difficulties in the availability of new centromeres. A structural polymorphism in one chromosome of pair 5 was observed as an intra-individual variation, suggesting differential activity of the genome from cell to cell. Correspondence: a [email protected], b [email protected] Received: 26 June 2006 | Accepted: 17 April 2007 | Published: xx November 2007 Copyright: This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed. ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 7, Number 60 Cite this paper as: Portugal C, Mesa A. 2007. Karyotype of the cricket, Zucchiella atlantica, with an overview of the chromosomes of the subfamily Nemobiinae. 5pp. Journal of Insect Science 7:60, available online: insectscience.org/7.60 Journal of Insect Science | www.insectscience.org ISSN: 1536-2442 Journal of Insect Science: Vol. 7 | Article 61 1