The relationship between morphology and flight in Drosophila:a study of two pairs of sibling species from a natural population

Insect flight is a complex trait involved in different behaviors,from the search for sexual partners,food,or breeding sites.Many studies have postulated the adaptive advantages of certain morphological traits in relation to increased flight capacity,such as low values of wing loading or high values of wing:thorax ratio and wing-aspect ratio.However,few studies have evaluated the relationship between variables related to flight and morphological traits in Drosophila.This work aimed to study morphological traits in males and females of two pairs of sibling species:Drosophila buzzati Patterson and Wheeler-Drosophila koeferae Fontdevila and Wasserman,and Drosophila melanogaster Meigen-Drosophila simulans Sturtevant,and to analyze its relationship with flight.We detected the highest proportion of flight time in D.koepferae and D.simulans compared to D.buzzati and D.melanogaster,respectively.Our results also revealed sexual dimorphism,with males exhibiting a higher proportion of flight time than females.Surprisingly,we did not find a general pattern to explain the relationship between morphology and the proportion of flight time because associations varied depending upon the analyses(considering all groups together or each sex-species combination separately).Moreover,these associations explained a low percentage of variation,suggesting that other nonmorphological components related to flight,such as physiological variables,should be taken into account.This work allowed us to show the variability and complexity of an aspect of flight,suggesting that the adaptive role of the morphological traits studied might have been overestimated.

Phenotypic plasticity in Drosophila cactophilic species the effect of competition, density, and breeding sites

Changes in the environmental conditions experienced by naturally occurring populations are frequently accompanied by changes in adaptive traits allowing the organ- ism to cope with environmental unpredictability. Phenotypic plasticity is a major aspect of adaptation and it has been involved in population dynamics of interacting species. In this study, phenotypic plasticity （i,e., environmental sensitivity） of morphological adap- tive traits were analyzed in the cactophilic species Drosophila buzzatii and Drosophila koepferae （Diptera： Drosophilidae） considering the effect of crowding conditions （low and high density）, type of competition （intraspecific and interspecific competition） and cacti hosts （Opuntia and Columnar cacti）. All traits （wing length, wing width, thorax length, wing loading and wing aspect） showed significant variation for each environmental factor considered in both Drosophila species. The phenotypic plasticity pattern observed for each trait was different within and between these cactopbilic Drosophila species depending on the environmental factor analyzed suggesting that body size-related traits respond almost independently to environmental heterogeneity. The effects of ecological factors analyzed in this study are discussed in order to elucidate the causal factors investigated （type of com- petition, crowding conditions and alternative host） affecting the election of the breeding site and/or the range of distribution of these cactophilic species.