<p class="Body" align="left"><strong>A contribution to knowledge of some main trends in evolutionary </strong><strong>transformations of the male genitalia in superorder Amphiesmenoptera </strong><strong>(Insecta, Trichoptera + Lepidoptera)</strong></p>

Abstract

The general trends of evolutionary transformations in the male copulatory apparatus of the lower ditrysian Lepidoptera, family Gelechiidae, on the base of functional morphological analysis are similar to those in the order Trichoptera. Evolution of the genitalia in both groups was directed to improvement of efficiency of mating mechanisms. It is found that one of the general trends in trichopterans, reduced of gonopods, corresponds to the main direction of valvae transformation in lower ditrysian moths Gelechiidae. These structures, being of importance in grasping the female in other groups of Lepidoptera, lost this function in some genera and they completely disappeared in most advanced groups of gelechiid moths. That phenomenon is associated with transformations of other structures in copulatory apparatus, which functionally compensate for the lack of valvae. Such functional analogues are found in the course of comparative morphological analysis of the male genitalia in both groups. Similar changes and similar traits of the genital appendages in both groups, trichopterans and lower ditrysian lepidopterans, can be considered as evidence of parallel evolution. The possible parallelisms as indicators of common evolutionary trends in transformation of copulatory apparatus within the two lineages, Trichoptera and Lepidoptera, having a common ancestor, are discussed.