GENETIC-CONTROL AND EVOLUTION OF ACOUSTIC-SIGNALS IN PLANTHOPPERS (HOMOPTERA, DELPHACIDAE)

Acoustic signals are part of the specific mate recognition system of p lanthoppers. The genetic control of acoustic signal characters was stu died in the planthopper Ribautodelphax imitans. Artificial selection f or interpulse interval in the female call revealed a large additive ge netic component for this polygenic character. Other female call charac ters showed a correlated response. Some male call characters also appe ared to be genetically correlated with the female character selected f or, despite the rather different structure of male and female calls. P arent-offspring regression provided significant heritability estimates for those male can characters that also responded to artificial selec tion in the female call, one of which appeared to be influenced by sex -linked genes. It is argued that the differentiation of this mate reco gnition system in planthopper populations and species could be the res ult of founder effects, enabled by the genetic plasticity of the call characters and the existence of a wing length dimorphism in these anim als.