Lack of assortative mating might explain reduced phenotypic differentiation where two grasshopper species meet.

ABSTRACT: Hybridization is an evolutionary process with wide-ranging potential outcomes, from providing populations with important genetic variation for adaptation to being a substantial fitness cost leading to extinction. Here, we focussed on putative hybridization between two morphologically distinct species of New Zealand grasshopper. We collected Phaulacridium marginale and Phaulacridium otagoense specimens from a region where mitochondrial introgression had been detected and where their habitat has been modified by introduced mammals eating the natural vegetation and by the colonization of many non-native plant species. In contrast to observations in the 1970s, our sampling of wild pairs of grasshoppers in copula provided no evidence of assortative mating with respect to species. Geometric morp

SUBMITTER: Morgan-Richards M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9290589 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature