Identity of Two Sympatric Species ofOrius(Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Anthocoridae)

Abstract

The minute pirate bugs, Orius insidiosus (Say) and Orius pumilio (Champion) (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Anthocoridae), are closely related species known to be sympatric in north Florida. Here, male and female genitalia, DNA sequences, and the effects of within- and between-species pairings on egg production and egg development were examined to develop a better understanding of the relationship between these two species. Interspecific matings between the two species did not result in viable progeny. Although there were gross similarities in the morphology of the male parameres (external genitalia) between the two species, the cone in O. pumilio was much broader with a greater spiral twist and the flagellum was longer than in O. insidiosus. Correspondingly, there were differences in the morphology of the copulatory tubes of the females of the two species. In O. insidiosus, the organ was somewhat longer than in O. pumilio and oriented parallel to the abdominal midline, while the copulatory tube in O. pumilio tilted slightly towards the midline. Additionally, the copulatory tube for O. pumilio included a sclerotized basal mound that was not present in O. insidiosus. These morphological differences suggest that successful copulation between these species could be difficult. In contrast to conspecific matings, interspecific matings resulted in few or no eggs laid over a period of two weeks and no viable progeny. Comparison of the 18S ribosomal gene ITS-1 sequences between the two species demonstrated only 91% homology. When yolk protein contents were examined to determine whether reproductive physiology had shifted to full egg production, interspecifically mated females contained amounts of yolk protein comparable to that in fed, but unmated females; this was less than 10% of the yolk protein previously found in fed and conspecifically mated females. These findings together confirm that O. insidiosus and O. pumilio are indeed two separate species.

Preliminary Molecular Identification of a Predatory Bug,Orius albidipennis, Collected from Ornamental Plants

“…In general, the relationship among different Orius species agreed with the previous constructed relationship (Honda et al 1998; Jung et al 2010; Shapiro et al 2010) with differences in the positions of some taxa in our tree. These differences could be because only the manually alignable fragment of ITS1 was used in the present study, whereas the previous studies used more data from ITS1 and aligned it automatically by Clustal W program.…”

Copulatory Wounding and Traumatic Insemination

“…Other recent studies confirmed the occurrence of TM in other taxa (e.g., flower bugs: Shapiro et al 2010;Tatarnic et al 2014). We propose that CW will be detected in many more taxa given that CWduring consensual sexual intercourse in humans was described only relatively recently.…”

The influence of intraguild competitors on reproductive decisions by two predatory Heteroptera,Orius insidiosus(Anthocoridae) andNabis americoferus(Nabidae)

“…This species is widely collected throughout much of North America east of the Rocky Mountains (Shapiro, Shirk, Kelley, Lewis, and Horton 2010), and is often a dominant foliar-dwelling predator in major field cropping systems such as corn (Isenhour and Marston 1981;Corey, Kambhampati, and Wilde 1998;Seagraves and Yeargan 2009), soybeans (Fox, Landis, Cardoso, and DiFonzo 2004;Rutledge, O'Neil, Fox, and Landis 2004), and alfalfa (Al-Deeb,…”