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Dryad

Data from: Quantitative genetic analysis of subspecific differences in body shape in the snail-feeding carabid beetle Damaster blaptoides

Cite this dataset

Konuma, Junji; Sota, Teiji; Chiba, Satoshi (2012). Data from: Quantitative genetic analysis of subspecific differences in body shape in the snail-feeding carabid beetle Damaster blaptoides [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jm752

Abstract

A dimorphic pattern of macrocephalic (wide, short) and stenocephalic (narrow, long) body shapes is observed in snail-feeding carabid beetles globally. The former exhibits high performance in crushing snail shells with powerful jaws, whereas the latter specializes in eating snails' soft body directly by inserting the head into the shell. In the snail-feeding species Damaster blaptoides, the subspecies D. b. capito has a wide short forebody, and D. b. fortunei has a narrow, long forebody. They exhibit distinct morphologies despite their geographic and phylogenetic proximity. To examine the genetic basis of the morphological differences between these two subspecies, we conducted quantitative genetic analyses by crossing these subspecies and producing F_1 and backcross hybrids. The hybrids had body shapes intermediate between the parental subspecies. The variation between wide, short and narrow, long forebodies was based on negative geneti c correlations between width and length of the head and thorax. Between one and eight genetic factors were involved in the morphological differences between subspecies. We suggest that the morphological integration of forebody parts in a small number of loci has facilitated the marked morphological diversification between subspecies of D. blaptoides.

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