Rodríguez-Mirón Geovanni M, Zaragoza-Caballero Santiago, López-Pérez Sara
Departamento de Zoología, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 70-153, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico.
Zookeys. 2017 Dec 11(720):47-64. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.720.14088. eCollection 2017.
The spermatheca is an organ that stores and maintains viability of sperm until fertilization. It has an important role in copulation and oviposition, and it is highly informative in species delimitation. Here, we present a comparative study of the spermathecal morphology in the coleopteran family Megalopodidae. The spermathecae of 34 species, representing 13 genera and all three subfamilies, were studied. Illustrations are newly provided for all species, except in 14 cases in which illustrations were reproduced from previously published literature. Our results show that each subfamily of Megalopodidae can be effectively differentiated based on the particular spermathecal anatomy. In addition, the spermathecal anatomy presents a range of variation within each subfamily, useful for diagnosing species and, in some cases, identifying groups of genera. For instance, the "American group" is thus recognized in this study.
受精囊是一种储存精子并维持其活力直至受精的器官。它在交配和产卵过程中起着重要作用，并且在物种界定方面具有很高的信息价值。在此，我们展示了一项关于鞘翅目豆象科受精囊形态的比较研究。我们研究了代表13个属和所有三个亚科的34个物种的受精囊。除了14个案例中的插图是从先前发表的文献中复制而来外，所有物种都重新提供了插图。我们的结果表明，豆象科的每个亚科都可以根据特定的受精囊解剖结构有效区分。此外，受精囊解剖结构在每个亚科内呈现出一系列变异，这对于诊断物种以及在某些情况下识别属的类群很有用。例如，本研究中识别出了“美洲类群”。
