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Video Q&A ViewAttendees 5

Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology

10-Minute Paper

PBT: Ecology – General On-Demand Presentations

Giant polyploid epidermal cells and male pheromone production in the tephritid fruit fly Eurosta solidaginis (Diptera: Tephritidae)

On-Demand
On-Demand

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Eric C. Yip

    Postdoctoral scholar
    Pennsylvania State University
    University Park, Pennsylvania

    • Co-Author(s)

  • IM

    Istvan Miko

    Collections Manager
    University of New Hampshire
    Durham, New Hampshire

  • Anjel Helms

    Texas A&M University
    College Station, Texas

  • JT

    John Tooker

    Pennsylvania State University
    University Park, Pennsylvania

  • JU

    Jonah Ulmer

    State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart
    Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

  • NC

    Nancy Cherim

    University of New Hampshire
    Durham, New Hampshire

  • MT

    Mark Townley

    University of New Hampshire
    Durham, New Hampshire

  • SP

    Steffen Poltak

    University of New Hampshire
    Durham, New Hampshire

  • MM

    Mark Mescher

    ETH Zurich
    Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

  • CD

    Consuelo De Moraes

    ETH Zurich
    Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Eurosta solidaginis males produce large amounts of putative sex pheromone compared to other insect species; however, neither the site of pheromone production nor the release mechanism has been characterized. We compared E. solidaginis males and females, focusing on sexually dimorphic structures that are known to be involved in pheromone production in other tephritid species. Morphological and chemical analyses indicated that the rectum and pleural epidermis are involved in male E. solidaginis pheromone production, storage, or emission. We detected large quantities of pheromone in the enlarged rectum, suggesting that it stores pheromone for subsequent release through the anus. However, pheromone might also discharge through the pleural cuticle with the involvement of unusual pleural attachments of the tergosternal muscles, which, when contracted in males, realign specialized cuticular surface elements and expose less-sclerotized areas of cuticle. In males, pheromone components were also detected in epidermal cells of the pleuron. These cells were 60–100 times larger in mature males than in females and, to our knowledge, are the largest animal epithelial cells ever recorded. Furthermore, because these large cells in males are multinucleated, we presume that they develop through somatic polyploidization by endomitosis. Consequently, the pheromone-associated multinuclear pleural epidermal cells of Eurosta solidaginis may provide an interesting new system for understanding polyploidization.