Paysandisia archon (Burmeister, 1980) (Lepidoptera: Castniidae) is an accidentally introduced pest that damages palm trees in the northern Mediterranean area. To our knowledge, there are no experimental studies on its mating behaviour, and little is known about its biology and ecology. In the present study, we used outdoor experiments to investigate several characteristics of the reproductive behaviour of P. archon: sexual maturity, diel periodicity of mating, occurrence of polyandry and delay between mating and laying eggs. The results indicate that 73% of the individuals studied were sexually mature three hours after adult emergence. Mating peaked between 14:00 h and 15:00 h and 87% of the females were fertilized and started laying eggs 1.25 (± 1.14) days after mating. Females were generally monandrous, but nevertheless remained attractive after mating. The results of this study provide the necessary background knowledge for studying several aspects of P. archon reproductive biology, in particular oviposition, sex pheromones and their role in mediating mating behaviour in this pest. These results are the first step in developing tools for monitoring populations of this pest., Roxane Delle-Vedove ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Genetic differentiation is a consequence of the combination of drift and restriction in gene flow between populations due to barriers to dispersal, or selection against individuals resulting from inter-population matings. In phytophagous insects, local adaptation to different kinds of host plants can sometimes lead to reproductive isolation and thus to genetic structuring, or even to speciation. Acanthoscelides obtectus Say is a bean bruchid specialized on beans of the Phaseolus vulgaris group, attacking both wild and domesticated forms of P. vulgaris and P. coccineus. This study reveals that the genetic structure of populations of this bruchid is explained mainly by their geographical location and is not related to a particular kind (wild or domesticated) of bean. In contrast, the species of bean might have led, to some extent, to genetic structuring in these bruchids, although our sampling is too limited to address such process unambiguously. If confirmed, it would corroborate preliminary results found for the parasitoid species that attack Acanthoscelides species, which might show a genetic structure depending on the species of host plant.