Mj. Wade et al., INCIPIENT SPECIATION IN THE FLOUR BEETLE, TRIBOLIUM CONFUSUM - PREMATING ISOLATION BETWEEN NATURAL-POPULATIONS, Heredity, 75, 1995, pp. 453-459
We report the existence of partial reproductive isolation between two
natural populations of the flour beetle, Tribolium confusum, collected
in Kaduna, Nigeria and Zagreb, Croatia. When a female from either pop
ulation is paired with a single sympatric or allopatric male, she prod
uces near normal numbers of semifertile offspring. However, when femal
es are multiply mated with allopatric and sympatric males, the sympatr
ic males sire the large majority of offspring. When measured in offspr
ing numbers, the mean relative fitness of allopatric males is 0.425 wi
th Nigerian females and 0.085 with Croatian females. Thus, the reprodu
ctive isolation is reciprocal but asymmetric. Behavioural observations
indicate that only a fraction of mating attempts by allopatric males
are successful because females do not become quiescent as often when m
ounted by allopatric males. The premating isolation is also reciprocal
but asymmetric: Nigerian females are more accepting of allopatric mal
es as mates than are Croatian females. The prezygotic behavioural isol
ation between these two populations is different from the postmating,
prezygotic isolation observed between two other species in the genus,
ir: castaneum and T. freemani. Furthermore, the I: confusum interpopul
ation hybrids are fertile although they exhibit a weak female bias.