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Case of unilateral wing formation in the female of the glowworm Lampyris noctiluca
Author(s) -
Maas Ulrike,
Dorn August
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of morphology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.652
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1097-4687
pISSN - 0362-2525
DOI - 10.1002/jmor.10127
Subject(s) - biology , corpus allatum , sexual dimorphism , juvenile hormone , wing , appendage , anatomy , zoology , endocrinology , hormone , aerospace engineering , engineering
On July 27, 1999, the first author found a unilaterally winged adult glowworm in a park in the city of Mainz. Except for the wings on the left side, the specimen exhibited female characteristics that extended to external sexual appendages, the lantern and the gonads. The internal organization showed some remarkable differences between right (wingless) and left (winged) side. The right ovary contained three times more mature eggs than the left side and the volume of the corpus allatum of this side was about one‐third larger than that of the left side. This suggests that aptery and egg maturation are affected by corpus allatum activity, i.e., juvenile hormone production. The findings do not support the hypothesis of Naisse ([1966] Arch Biol Liège 77:139–201) that wing formation, as a secondary male characteristic, is controlled by an androgenic hormone from the testes in the glowworm. Thus, the observations on this exceptional specimen have implications for the current hypotheses concerning the control of sexual wing dimorphism in Lampyris noctiluca . J. Morphol. 257:254–258, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.