Abstract
Selection for fast and slow development in flour beetlesTribolium castaneum (CS) andT. confusum (CF) has resulted in a number of correlated responses in other characters. In general, the fast selected lines of both species have responded similarly with respect to these other traits. The fast lines are characterized by decreased length of time spent in all juvenile stages, decreased size, and essentially the same productivity and hatchability of eggs as the synthetic stocks. In CS-fast there was a substantial decrease in larval survival and an increase in the frequency of abnormal adults. The latter observations did not hold for the CF-fast line.
The CS-slow line, on the other hand, exhibited an increased duration of egg, larval and pupal stages, increased size (at least as determined by pupal weight), and decreased hatchability and larval survival. Productivity also decreased somewhat when measured as the number of eggs per female per day. The frequency of abnormal beetles was also higher in this line than in the foundation stock.
Fitness, as measured by competitive ability, decreased in all selected lines, supporting the notion of an intermediate optimum for developmental rate in the foundation populations.
No evidence was found to support the existence of a compensation mechanism for developmental rate such as that found inDrosophila, whereby faster larval development is compensated for by an increase in the length of the pupal stage.
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Dawson, P.S. Correlated responses to selection for developmental rate inTribolium . Genetica 37, 63–77 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01547120
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01547120