Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Département Systématique et Evolution, UMR 7205 CNRS, , 45 rue Buffon-CP 50, 75005 Paris, France.
Biol Lett. 2011 Feb 23;7(1):11-4. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0726. Epub 2010 Sep 22.
A new dance fly (Empididae: Empidinae) with hugely modified male fore tarsus, either on the right, left, both or neither sides, is described from Japan. Such massive polymorphic asymmetry occurring with so high an incidence in a population is previously unreported. In view of the courtship behaviour of other Empidinae, we hypothesize that the oversized tarsus is a secondary sexual character employed by males for attracting females. Alternative hypotheses are also discussed. We suggest that this extraordinary new species is a potential model for the study of mating biology in Empidinae and the evolution of mating systems in general.
本文描述了一种来自日本的新舞虻（Empididae: Empidinae），其雄性前跗节在右侧、左侧、双侧或双侧均发生了巨大的、多态的、不对称的改变。在一个种群中如此高频率地出现如此大规模的多态性不对称现象以前从未有过报道。鉴于其他舞虻科的求偶行为，我们假设这种超大跗节是雄性用来吸引雌性的第二性征。同时也讨论了其他假设。我们认为，这个新的特殊物种可能成为研究舞虻科交配生物学和一般交配系统进化的潜在模式。
