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Ischnura Elegans (ischnura + elegan)
Selected AbstractsCorrelated morphological and colour differences among females of the damselfly Ischnura elegansECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 3 2009JESSICA K. ABBOTT Abstract 1.,The female-limited colour polymorphic damselfly Ischnura elegans has proven to be an interesting study organism both as an example of female sexual polymorphism, and in the context of the evolution of colour polymorphism, as a model of speciation processes. 2.,Previous research suggests the existence of correlations between colour morph and other phenotypic traits, and the different female morphs in I. elegans may be pursuing alternative phenotypically integrated strategies. However, previous research on morphological differences in southern Swedish individuals of this species was only carried out on laboratory-raised offspring from a single population, leaving open the question of how widespread such differences are. 3.,The present study therefore analysed multi-generational data from 12 populations, investigating morphological differences between the female morphs in the field, differences in the pattern of phenotypic integration between morphs, and quantified selection on morphological traits. 4.,It was found that consistent morphological differences indeed existed between the morphs across populations, confirming that the previously observed differences were not simply a laboratory artefact. It was also found, somewhat surprisingly, that despite the existence of sexual dimorphism in body size and shape, patterns of phenotypic integration differed most between the morphs and not between the sexes. Finally, linear selection gradients showed that female morphology affected fecundity differently between the morphs. 5.,We discuss the relevance of these results to the male mimicry hypothesis and to the existence of potential ecological differences between the morphs. [source] SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DYNAMICS IN A SEXUAL SELECTION MOSAICEVOLUTION, Issue 4 2008Thomas P. Gosden Selective regimes and phenotypic optima could either change smoothly and in a clinal fashion or be spatially organized in a more unpredictable mosaic pattern over the geographic landscape. When natural or sexual selection is driven by intra- or interspecific biotic interactions, fine-grained spatial variation in selective regimes could result in selection mosaics rather than clinal variation in selection. We investigated temporal variation and spatial organization in sexual selection on male body size along an ecological coastal-inland gradient of a polymorphic damselfly Ischnura elegans. Body size increased in a clinal fashion along this gradient: animals were smaller in size at the coast, but became larger in the inland areas. In contrast, the sexual selection regimes on male body size showed evidence of more fine-grained spatial organization with no evidence for a clinal pattern and low spatial autocorrelations between populations. These spatially fine-grained sexual selection regimes varied in sign and magnitude and were driven by a combination of the densities of heritable female color morphs and local female body sizes. We suggest that the spatial organization of the selective regimes can be interpreted as a sexual selection mosaic that is influenced by highly localized density- and frequency-dependent social interactions. [source] Phenotypic and genetic variation in emergence and development time of a trimorphic damselflyJOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 6 2005J. ABBOTT Abstract Although colour polymorphisms in adult organisms of many taxa are often adaptive in the context of sexual selection or predation, genetic correlations between colour and other phenotypic traits expressed early in ontogeny could also play an important role in polymorphic systems. We studied phenotypic and genetic variation in development time among female colour morphs in the polymorphic damselfly Ischnura elegans in the field and by raising larvae in a common laboratory environment. In the field, the three different female morphs emerged at different times. Among laboratory-raised families, we found evidence of a significant correlation between maternal morph and larval development time in both sexes. This suggests that the phenotypic correlation between morph and emergence time in the field has a parallel in a genetic correlation between maternal colour and offspring development time. Maternal colour morph frequencies could thus potentially change as correlated responses to selection on larval emergence dates. The similar genetic correlation in male offspring suggests that sex-limitation in this system is incomplete, which may lead to an ontogenetic sexual conflict between selection for early male emergence (protandry) and emergence times associated with maternal morph. [source] | ||||||||||