Genetic control of geographic variation for cannibalism in the southwestern corn borer, Diatraea grandiosella

The southwestern corn borer, Diatraea grandiosella Dyar, is a subtropical insect whose range has expanded northward within this century. Geographic variation exists between populations at the extremes of the range for a suite of morphological and behavioral characters, including cannibalism. Laboratory colonies established from a Missouri population (37°N lat.) with a high cannibalism rate and a Mexican population (19°N lat.) with a low cannibalism rate were used to examine the genetic basis of cannibalism by means of a controlled breeding design. When larvae were held in pairs on artificial diet in 30 ml plastic cups at 30 °C 16L:8D, the highest incidence of cannibalism in both Missouri and Mexican populations was found in larvae 15 to 18 days‐of‐age (5th and 6th instars). Under these conditions, cannibalism was expressed in 33 % of the pairs formed from Missouri larvae and 11 % of the pairs formed from Mexican larvae. First and second generation crosses between Missouri and Mexican populations showed an intermediate level of cannibalism, whereas backcrosses to the parental generations showed a regression to the parental phenotypes. These results indicate that cannibalism is under additive genetic control. Larvae from the Missouri parental population were more likely to consume their victim (i.e., cannibalize) once intraspecific killing had occurred than were larvae from the Mexican parental population or from any of the crosses, and female larvae were cannibals more often than were males. Under the conditions employed, no advantage was detected for cannibalism over instraspecific killing for larval weight gain or growth rate.