Divergent sensory investment mirrors potential speciation via niche partitioning across Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: The examination of phylogenetic and phenotypic characteristics of the nervous system, such as behavior and neuroanatomy, can be utilized as a means to assess speciation. Recent studies have proposed a fundamental tradeoff between two sensory organs, the eye and the antenna. However, the identification of ecological mechanisms for this observed tradeoff have not been firmly established. Our current study examines several monophyletic species within the obscura group, and asserts that despite their close relatedness and overlapping ecology, they deviate strongly in both visual and olfactory investment. We contend that both courtship and microhabitat preferences support the observed inverse variation in these sensory traits. Here, this variation in visual and olfactory investment seems

SUBMITTER: Keesey IW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7402680 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature