Male Horn Lack of Allometry May be Tied to Food Relocation Behaviour in Lifting Dung Beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Eucraniini).

ABSTRACT: The small dung beetle tribe Eucraniini includes extremely specialized species that have been defined as "lifters" according to their food relocation behaviour. They are characterized by the presence of well-developed expansions on the head and pronotum, which can be included in the large and varied group of horns, whose presence is usually related to complex reproductive tactics. In this study, two closely related species, Anomiopsoides cavifrons and A. heteroclyta, were examined employing traditional and geometric morphometrics to test whether the Eucraniini has polymorphic males that might exhibit different reproductive tactics, as in the sister tribe Phanaeini, for which a male trimorphism was demonstrated. If also present in Eucraniini polyphenism could be considered a plesiomorphy com

SUBMITTER: Palestrini C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6835258 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature