Reproductive Costs for Hybridizing Female Anasa tristis (Hemiptera: Coreidae), but No Evidence of Selection Against Interspecific Mating.

ABSTRACT: Individuals of different species sometimes mate in nature, and such behavior often carries costs, such as wasted gametes and inviable offspring. One context in which interspecific mating commonly occurs is when closely related species come into secondary contact. Here, we tested whether reproductive isolation is greater in an area of recent secondary contact than in allopatry for two closely related insect species, and we examined whether mating between individuals of these two species constitutes reproductive interference. In Florida, two species of squash bugs (Hemiptera: Coreidae: Anasa tristis DeGeer and Anasa andresii Guérin-Méneville) have been secondarily sympatric for ≥80 generations, and male A. andresii copulate with female A. tristis. Because hybridization is often costly for fe

SUBMITTER: Hamel JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6110343 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature