A male gift to its partner?: Cyanogenic glycosides in the spermatophore of longwing butterflies (Heliconius)
A male gift to its partner?: Cyanogenic glycosides in the spermatophore of longwing butterflies (Heliconius)
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DOI：
10.1007/s00114-006-0154-6
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发表时间：
2007-01-01
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Gilbert, Lawrence E.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Cardoso, Marcio Zikan;Gilbert, Lawrence E.
一些昆虫物种的雄性在交配过程中将婚姻礼物转移给雌性，通常以富含蛋白质的精荚的形式。在化学防御的物种中，雄性可能会用化学物质来增强这种天赋，这些化学物质有助于保护雌性，她的卵子，或者两者兼而有之。这显示了积累吡咯里西啶生物碱的鳞翅目物种。大多数Heliconius蝴蝶大概是保护从捕食者凭借从头合成和/或螯合生氰苷。已知Heliconius物种的雄性将营养礼物转移给雌性，但防御化学物质是否也可以转移尚不清楚。为了确定是否发生氰转移，我们解剖了九种不同蝎尾蝠属物种的新鲜交配雌性，并分析了精胞中的生氰苷。我们在这九个物种的精囊中都发现了氰。这是第一次报道生氰苷在节肢动物的精荚。我们讨论了这些发现对蝎蛉生物学和其他生氰昆虫的影响。我们认为，化学防御的物种通常花边与防御化学品，以提高礼物的质量他们的婚礼礼物。
Males of several insect species transfer nuptial gifts to females during mating, typically in the form of a protein-rich spermatophore. In chemically defended species, males could potentially enhance such a gift with chemicals that help protect the female, her eggs, or both. This was shown for lepidopteran species that accumulate pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Most Heliconius butterflies are presumably protected from predators by virtue of de novo synthesized and/or sequestered cyanogenic glycosides. Males of Heliconius species are known to transfer nutritional gifts to the females but whether defensive chemicals could also be transferred is not known. To ascertain whether transfer of cyanogens occurs, we dissected freshly mated females from nine different Heliconius species and analyzed spermatophores for cyanogenic glycosides. We found cyanogens in the spermatophores of all nine species. This is the first time cyanogenic glycosides are reported in the spermatophores of arthropods. We discuss the implications of these findings for Heliconius biology and for other cyanogenic insects as well. We suggest that chemically defended species commonly lace their nuptial gifts with defensive chemicals to improve gift quality.