[HELICONIUS] Ithomiinae interspecific hybridization

[André Victor]

And the vouchers are here in our Museum!

André

De: heliconius-bounces at ucl.ac.uk 
[mailto:heliconius-bounces at ucl.ac.uk] Em nome de James Mallet
Enviada em: quarta-feira, 15 de dezembro de 2010 14:44
Para: heliconius at ucl.ac.uk
Assunto: [HELICONIUS] Ithomiinae interspecific 
hybridization, something I didn't know about

Vasconcellos-Neto, J. 1982. Interspecific 
hybridization in Mechanitis butterflies 
(Ithomiinae): a novel pathway for the breakdown 
of isolating mechanisms. Biotropica 14:288-294.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/2388088>http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/2388088 

A novel pathway is proposed to explain the 
occasional breakdown of prezygotic 
(chemical-courtship) isolating mechanisms in 
mimetic ithomiine butterflies (Mechanitis 
polymnia and M. lysimma) In dense dry-season 
populations, mixed groups of males have been 
observed to court a single female. She becomes 
receptive through recognition of the pheromone 
produced by the conspecific majority males, but 
may be mated by a transpecific minority male in 
the courting group, leading to accidental 
interspecific hybridization. All five 
interspecific matings observed in Sumare, Sao 
Paulo, Brazil, were between a female of the 
more-abundant species, M. polymnia casabranca, 
and a male of the less-abundant M. lysimnia 
lysimnia. The F1 hybrid can probably backcross to 
both parental types, as many recombinant 
phenotypes are represented in the 48 presumed 
hybrids known from six localities, among over 
36,500 parental types sampled or marked during 
seven years. The small interspecific 
introgression may occasionally be important in 
the evolution of these mimetic butterflies.
best, j

________________________________

James Mallet
UCL
<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim>www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.mailinglists.ucl.ac.uk/pipermail/heliconius/attachments/20110110/1368fb77/attachment.htm>