Abstract
Closely related species have similar reproductive behaviors and recognition systems, which contribute to interspecific interactions. However, few studies have explored interspecific reproduction choice and mating in termites. We investigated whether hybridization between two sympatric termites, Reticulitermes flaviceps and R. chinensis, occurs under laboratory conditions. We found that frequencies of acceptance were significantly higher than those of agonism between interspecific partners. There were no significant differences in frequencies of tandem and mating behaviors between intraspecific and interspecific partners. However, the allogrooming frequencies of interspecific partners were significantly higher than intraspecific partners. There were no significant differences in the duration of tandem, allogrooming, or mating behavior at each time between conspecific partners and heterospecfic partners. Genotyping analyses further showed that both intraspecific and interspecific mating were able to produce offspring. We conclude that interspecific hybridization does occur between two termite Reticulitermes species under laboratory conditions.
Highlights
Hybridization between relative species is considered to be a potential way to increase the chance of mating and reproduction for individuals that fail to mate with intraspecific partners
Our results indicated that the frequencies of frequencieswere of significantly acceptance higher were significantly higher than thoseinterspecific of aggression between acceptance than those of aggression between partners when interspecific partners encountered each
When conspecific and interspecific partners were present in the same arena, we found that there were the similar frequencies of allogrooming in early encountering between interspecies and
Summary
Hybridization between relative species is considered to be a potential way to increase the chance of mating and reproduction for individuals that fail to mate with intraspecific partners. Related species often have similar reproductive behaviors and recognition systems, which contribute to interspecific interactions. Behavioral preference for conspecifics may form some barrier limiting interaction and results in minimum chances of gene flow between species [1,2,3]. Behavioral observations have suggested that preferences for conspecific may be plastic [1,4]. It can be minimized or reversed depending on the fitness of offspring and environments [1,2,3]. While the preference for conspecifics plays a role in keeping a pure gene pool in each species, its breakdown may facilitate hybridization between species [4]
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