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Unbalanced polyandry in wild-caught ladybirds Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)

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Abstract

We investigated the mating and fertilization patterns in one Czech local population of the invasive aphidophagous ladybird Harmonia axyridis (Pallas), sampling the same mixed generations before and after overwintering. Our study using eight microsatellite loci provides the first direct evidence that females of H. axyridis are highly polyandrous in the wild and that they not only mate multiple times but also use the sperm from multiple males to fertilize their eggs. Three types of values (minimum number of fathers, estimated number of fathers and effective number of fathers contributing to progeny of one mother) were about two times higher in the spring sample (2.9, 5.2, 3.1), in the peak of their reproduction period, than in the preceding autumn sample (1.6, 2.8, 1.6). The contribution of individual fathers to the number of progeny was highly unbalanced, with a few dominating fathers and many fathers with low number of progeny.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by grant no. QH82047 from the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic and by a grant from the Agropolis Fondation (RTRA—Montpellier, BIOFIS project). All molecular data were generated at the molecular genetic analysis technical facilities of the Environment and Biodiversity IFR 119 at Montpellier (France). We are grateful to John Sloggett, Ivo Hodek, Pavel Kindlmann and four reviewers of the previous version of the manuscript for their valuable comments and corrections.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 1760, 37005, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

    Mona Awad & Oldřich Nedvěd

  2. Institute of Entomology, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

    Mona Awad & Oldřich Nedvěd

  3. Faculty of Agriculture, University of Cairo, Giza, Egypt

    Mona Awad

  4. UMR1062, INRA, Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations, Montpellier, France

    Guillaume J. M. Laugier & Anne Loiseau

  5. Université Montpellier 2/CEFE-CNRS, Montpellier, France

    Guillaume J. M. Laugier

Authors
  1. Mona Awad
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  2. Guillaume J. M. Laugier
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  3. Anne Loiseau
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  4. Oldřich Nedvěd
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Correspondence to Oldřich Nedvěd.

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Awad, M., Laugier, G.J.M., Loiseau, A. et al. Unbalanced polyandry in wild-caught ladybirds Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae). Appl Entomol Zool 50, 427–434 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13355-015-0348-5

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