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

• Published in: Insect science 2024-06, Vol.31 (3), p.885-900
• Main Authors: Flaibani, Nicolás, Ortiz, Victoria Estefanía, Fanara, Juan José, Carreira, Valeria Paula
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Aspect ratio; Breeding sites; Complexity; Drosophila; Drosophila - anatomy & histology; Drosophila - genetics; Drosophila - physiology; Drosophila melanogaster; Drosophila melanogaster - anatomy & histology; Drosophila melanogaster - physiology; Female; Females; Flight; Flight time; Flight, Animal; Fruit flies; insect flight; Insects; Male; Males; morphological traits; Morphology; Sex Characteristics; Sexual dimorphism; Sexual partners; Sibling species; Species Specificity; Thorax; time in flight; Wing loading; wing second moment of area; wing:thorax ratio; Wings; Wings, Animal - anatomy & histology; wing–aspect ratio
• ISSN: 1672-9609; 1744-7917; 1744-7917
• DOI: 10.1111/1744-7917.13273

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 buzzatii 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. buzzatii 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. Several morphological traits have been recurrently used as predictors of flight capacity. We detected significant differences in flight time between sexes and species in two pair of sibling species of Drosophila derived from the same population. However, we did not find a general pattern to explain the relationship between morphology and flight time, suggesting that the adaptive role of morphology might have been overestimated in relation to flight.