Biomechanical Determinants of Bite Force Dimorphism in Cyclommatus
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
© 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd | The Journal of Experimental Biology (2014) 217, 1065-1071 doi:10.1242/jeb.091744 RESEARCH ARTICLE Biomechanical determinants of bite force dimorphism in Cyclommatus metallifer stag beetles Jana Goyens1,2,*, Joris Dirckx2, Manuel Dierick3, Luc Van Hoorebeke3 and Peter Aerts1,4 ABSTRACT 2008; Inoue and Hasegawa, 2013; Kawano, 2006; Shiokawa and In the stag beetle family (Lucanidae), males have diverged from Iwahashi, 2000; Tatsuta et al., 2001). During such fights, opponents females by sexual selection. The males fight each other for mating try to grip each other and the winner will lift the other male and opportunities with their enlarged mandibles. It is known that owners throw it backwards (Shiokawa and Iwahashi, 2000) (authors’ of larger fighting apparatuses are favoured to win the male–male personal observations; see supplementary material Movie 1). Male fights, but it was unclear whether male stag beetles also need to stag beetles with larger mandibles have been shown to win these produce high bite forces while grabbing and lifting opponents in male–male fights more often (Emlen et al., 2005; Hosoya and fights. We show that male Cyclommatus metallifer stag beetles bite Araya, 2005; Tatsuta et al., 2001). three times as forcefully as females. This is not entirely unexpected Most research on bite performance and sexual dimorphism has given the spectacular nature of the fights, but all the more impressive been performed on lizards. As in stag beetles, male lizards often given the difficulty of achieving this with their long mandibles (long have larger body and head sizes (Herrel et al., 1995; Herrel et al., levers). Our results suggest no increase in male intrinsic muscle 2007), the latter being correlated with higher male bite forces strength to accomplish this. However, morphological analyses show (Herrel et al., 1999; Herrel et al., 2001; Herrel et al., 2007; that the long mandibular output levers in males are compensated by Verwaijen et al., 2002). It has been suggested that this sexual elongated input levers (and thus a wider anterior side of the head). dimorphism arose by sexual selection on male bite force and natural The surplus of male bite force capability is realized by enlargement selection on diet [prey size and toughness (Herrel et al., 1995; Herrel of the closer muscles of the mandibles, while overall muscle force et al., 1999; Vanhooydonck et al., 2010)]. The large male stag beetle direction remained optimal. To enable the forceful bites required to head may suggest a similar system, leading to higher bite force in ensure male reproductive success, male head size and shape are males compared with females. However, it remains unexplored adapted for long input levers and large muscles. Therefore, the entire whether bite force, as such, determines fight outcome [such as head should be regarded as an integral part of male armature. already observed, for instance, in several lizard species, field crickets and fanged frogs (e.g. Emerson and Voris, 1992; Hall et al., KEY WORDS: Lucanidae, Sexual dimorphism, Bite force, 2010; Husak et al., 2006; Huyghe et al., 2005; Lailvaux et al., Functional morphology 2004)]. Indeed, fighting success in male stag beetles may rely equally well on firm interlocking between the ornamented jaws and INTRODUCTION the exoskeleton of the opponent without the need for a forceful Insect mandibles are often adapted into tools for various tasks: e.g. pinch [comparable to the interlocking of antlers in fighting red deer fighting, digging, leaf-cutting, grooming and transporting liquids in stags (Clutton-Brock et al., 1979; Lincoln, 1972)]. If, however, ants; penetrating the soft tissues of snails and attaching to amphibian forceful biting should prove to be important in stag beetle contests, skin in ground beetles; cutting mature tree leaves and tearing and male stag beetles face an additional problem: strongly elongated shredding young tree leaves in saturniids (Bernays, 1998; Bernays mandibles mean long output levers that reduce the force and Janzen, 1988; Ober et al., 2011; Paul, 2001; Wizen and Gasith, transmission from the closer muscles to the mandibular bite points. 2011). Male stag beetles (Lucanidae) are widely known for their In this case, other compensatory adaptations for the enlarged output extraordinary mandibles: a conspicuous sexual dimorphism where lever should be present in male stag beetles. males can have mandibles in a variety of shapes that can be almost In this paper, we investigate the sexual dimorphism of the as long as their own body, while female mandibles are small and mandibular apparatus and the bite force in Cyclommatus metallifer indistinct (Kawano, 2006). The small female mandibles are used to Boisduval 1835 stag beetles. This Indonesian species belongs to the dig in rotten wood (for oviposition) and in soil (when emerging from genus Cyclommatus, which includes (together with the genus their cocoon and to hide from predators), and possibly to pierce tree Prosopocoilus) stag beetle species with the most oversized male bark to feed from sap runs (Percy, 1998; Tanahashi et al., 2009; mandibles (Gotoh et al., 2012; Kawano, 2006). In order to assess the Tanahashi et al., 2010). Male stag beetles, however, fight each other effects of male sexual dimorphism on function and performance, one with their enlarged mandibles to gain access to females (Emlen, should, ideally, compare with non-dimorphic conspecific males. In (stag) beetles, comparison with properly scaled females (see Materials 1University of Antwerp, Laboratory of Functional Morphology, Universiteitsplein 1, and methods) can be used as a proxy for such a hypothetical non- B-2610 Antwerp, Belgium. 2University of Antwerp, Laboratory of BioMedical dimorphic male, as for species without sexual dimorphism (except for 3 Physics, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium. Ghent University, the reproductive organs), males and females can hardly (if at all) be UGCT-Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Sciences, Proeftuinstraat 86, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. 4Ghent University, Department of Movement and Sport discerned from each other (Hosoya and Araya, 2005; Kawano, 2006). Sciences, Watersportlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. We hypothesize that males show an increased bite force performance compared with females. Okada and Hasegawa (Okada *Author for correspondence ([email protected]) and Hasegawa, 2005) suggested that the stag beetle mating system Received 5 June 2013; Accepted 5 December 2013 is not based on female choice. Therefore, it seems likely that the The Journal of Experimental Biology 1065 RESEARCH ARTICLE The Journal of Experimental Biology (2014) doi:10.1242/jeb.091744 Morphology and morphometrics List of symbols and abbreviations Micro-CT reconstructions give us an insight into the interior of the Fbite,measured measured bite force, tangent to the orbit of the bite point head (see Fig. 3). The general anatomy of the head is similar to that Fbite,predicted calculated bite force of other beetles (Gorb and Beutel, 2000; Li et al., 2011). The F calculated muscle force muscle mandibles articulate by a hinge axis, formed by a pair of condyles. Fp measured bite force, perpendicular to the bite plates Fp force perpendicular to the bite plates The closer muscle is cone shaped and is distinctly larger than the MI muscle insertion point on mandible opener muscle: it almost completely fills the head capsule. MMA posterior body part, mesothorax + metathorax + abdomen Table 1 provides the input and output lever lengths as well as the PCSA physiological cross-sectional area lever ratios. In absolute terms, as well as expressed relative to the ri input lever vector width of the posterior part of the body [mesothorax + metathorax + ro output lever vector r input lever length abdomen (MMA); see Fig. 5], the males have longer levers than the i females. The lever ratio is not significantly different between males ro output lever length α mandibular angle and females, as shown by the nonparametric Wilcoxon rank sum test β 3D angle between Fbite,measured and ro (P=0.051). Given the low P-value and the low statistical power of γ 3D angle between Fmuscle and ri the test, this indicates that the long input levers compensate for the long male output levers, albeit probably not completely. mandibular system is optimized for fight performance. As mentioned, this should be accompanied by further adaptations of the Muscle geometry mandibular system, e.g. as observed for the cheliceral system in Male as well as female mandible closer muscles almost fill the entire camel spiders (van der Meijden et al., 2012). In this regard, the head (see Morphology and morphometrics, above). However, specific working hypotheses that we tested are: (1) males have because head shape and relative size differ, the normalized prolonged input levers to compensate for their long output levers, physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA) of the male closer muscle (2) male mandibular muscles are geometrically advantageous is almost 2.5 times larger (see Table 1). compared with those of females (in terms of size and working The force components of the closer muscle in the x-, y- and z- direction), and (3) these muscles are intrinsically stronger than directions are given in Table 2, averaged over the range of in vivo female muscles. used mandible positions (see Fig. 4). The absolute value of the y- component lies very close to 1 for both males and females, RESULTS indicating that the muscle