Abstract

The stridulatory apparatus (or stridulum) is currently assumed ancestral in crickets. Models of its subsequent evolution consider only one modality of evolutionary change: the stridulum would have been progressively lost in multiple cricket lineages. A phylogenetic test of this hypothesis is presented here. The morpho-functional types of stridulum have been optimized on the cladistic phylogenies of two monophyletic cricket clades, and parsimonious evolutionary scenarios of the evolution of the stridulum in these clades have been derived. The phylogenetic patterns thus obtained support the hypothesis that the stridulum has been lost several times convergently in crickets. They indicate, however, that the loss of the stridulum could be reversible, and that several modalities of evolutionary change exist for the stridulum. Phylogenetic analysis thus reveals an unsuspected complexity in the evolution of acoustic communication in crickets.

Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.