Modularity causing morphological divergence in the snail-feeding carabid beetles

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Focusing on the stout-slender morphological divergence in Damaster blaptoides, we studied its ecological mechanisms and genetic and developmental bases. We found that relatively small number of additive genetic effects involved in the stout and slender morphologies and that the head and thoracic characters are genetically correlated. We also showed that intermediate morphology is maladaptive in the snail-feeding, and suggested that the above genetic and developmental structures have an important role in the morphological divergence of D. blaptoides.