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The inheritance and maintenance of the melanic form nigrescens of Pachycnemia hippocastanaria (Lepidoptera: Ennominae)
Author(s) -
MAJERUS M. E. N.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
ecological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.865
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2311
pISSN - 0307-6946
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2311.1981.tb00633.x
Subject(s) - biology , population , lepidoptera genitalia , ecology , botany , zoology , demography , sociology
. 1. A New Forest population of P.hippocastanaria with both typical and nigrescens forms was studied over 6 years. The nigrescens form constituted between 10% and 17% of the population. 2. Breeding experiments showed that the nigrescens form is inherited as a unifactorial recessive; however, rearing at low temperatures induces a phenotype similar to nigrescens to result from insects with a genotype which normally produces typical imagines. 3. Old collections of P.hippocastanaria suggest that the frequency of the nigrescens form in the New Forest area has increased over the last 100 years. 4. Samples collected from other areas, within and outside the New Forest, indicated that the distribution of nigrescens is limited to heaths within the New Forest and on the extreme eastern border of Dorset. 5. A number of speculative reasons for the increase in the frequency of the nigrescens form in this area are suggested.