New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts

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Hybrid crosses of the meadow spittlebug Philaenus spumarius (L.) (Homoptera: Cercopidae) between New Zealand and Welsh populations

Selcuk Yurtsever

School of Biosciences
College of Cardiff, University of Wales,
Cardiff CF1 3TL, United Kingdom
Present address: Trakya University, Faculty of the Arts & Science, Biology Department, 22030 Edirne, Turkey.

Abstract  Crossing experiments with polymorphic meadow spittlebugs Philaenus spumarius (L.), obtained from New Zealand and Wales, were performed. Eight of the total of 18 hybrid crosses set up between the two regions were successful, producing 165 fertile progeny. Some insects mated up to 6 times and stayed up to 24 h in copula. Although the average number of eggs laid per female was 68.5 (range 19–134), the family sizes produced by the crossing experiments ranged between 6 and 56 adult offspring. The pure-bred flavicollis (FLA) and lateralis (LAT) forms of Philaenus spumarius have not been crossed in previous studies of this species. The two genetically controlled forms, FLA and LAT, which were expressed by the alleles “F” and “L” respectively, were co-dominant to each other and produced the marginellus (MAR) phenotype in the heterozygous (F/L) combination in both females and males. The FLA, LAT, and two other phenotypes—leucocephalus (LCE) and typicus (TYP)—that appeared in the progeny were also clearly expressed in both sexes.

Keywords  interfertility; polymorphism; meadow spittlebug; Philaenus spumarius; Homoptera; Cercopidae; New Zealand; Wales

Z01019 Received 10 May 2001; accepted 19 January 2002; published 9 September 2002
New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2002, Vol. 29: 245–251
0301–4223/02/2903–0245 $7.00/0 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2002

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