Mating Behaviour and Its Relationship with Morphological Features in the Millipede Pachyiulus Hungaricus (Karsch, 1881) (Myriapoda, Diplopoda, Julida)
Turkish Journal of Zoology Turk J Zool (2017) 41: 1010-1023 http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/zoology/ © TÜBİTAK Research Article doi:10.3906/zoo-1701-28 Mating behaviour and its relationship with morphological features in the millipede Pachyiulus hungaricus (Karsch, 1881) (Myriapoda, Diplopoda, Julida) 1, 2 1 2 Zvezdana JOVANOVIĆ *, Sofija PAVKOVIĆ-LUČIĆ , Bojan ILIĆ , Vukica VUJIĆ , 1 1 1 1 Boris DUDIĆ , Slobodan MAKAROV , Luka LUČIĆ , Vladimir TOMIĆ 1 Department of Animal Development, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia 2 Department of Genetics and Evolution, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia Received: 24.01.2017 Accepted/Published Online: 12.07.2017 Final Version: 21.11.2017 Abstract: Although millipedes (Diplopoda) represent one of the most diverse classes of arthropods, data concerning details of their mating behaviour are very scarce. In this work, we explored mating behaviour of the European millipede Pachyiulus hungaricus under laboratory conditions, and its relationship with the size and shape of certain morphological traits. We conducted 3 types of behavioural tests: a mating arena test, a female choice test, and a male choice test. Premating behaviour was “sequenced” in 5 behavioural steps and, together with the duration of copulation, scored in all mating assays. Males were the more active sex in searching for mates, while females were the “choosier” sex. Furthermore, in the choice tests, previous mating partners had significantly more copulations than new ones, thus raising questions about postcopulatory sexual selection in this species. On the other hand, our results indicate that size and/or shape of the tested morphological traits, except for the shape of the male walking legs, were not subject to precopulatory sexual selection.
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