Interspecific Hybridization between Heliothis virescens and H. subflexa (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) Affects the Presence and Structure of Hair-Pencil Glands of Males

Abstract

The effect of interspecific hybridization on the inheritance of hair-pencil glands was studied by crossing Heliothis virescens (F.), whose males have hair-pencil glands, with H. subflexa (Guenee), whose males lack hair pencils. Males from reciprocal interspecies crosses had hair-pencil glands the structure of which resembled those of H. virescens males. Backcross males from crosses between ( H. virescens female × H. subflexa male) F1 × H. subflexa ♂ lacked hair-pencil glands and were morphologically similar to H. subflexa males. The hair-pencil glands of first-generation backcross males from all other combinations resembled those of H. virescens . Second-generation backcross males from crosses, in which both Z chromosomes were inherited from H. subflexa , lacked hair pencils. However, second-generation backcross males that inherited at least one of the Z chromosomes from H. virescens were phenotypically similar to H. virescens . These results indicated that the presence of hair-pencil glands is regulated by a dominant allele of a locus or a group of genes located on the Z chromosome of H. virescens .