Abstract
The reproductive system and sperm morphology provide informative (but not so usual) characters in the systematic analysis, also it is still scarce for most of the insect taxa. Miridae is the largest family of Heteroptera, moreover, lower systematic relationships are still contentious, especially for the Bryocorinae subfamily. Due to the lack of data concerning Eccritotarsini (Bryocorinae), we described the male reproductive system and sperm morphometry of three species, including Bothrophorella nigra, Sixeonotus brasiliensis, and Pycnoderes incurvus. Our results showed that a single follicle per testis could be the typical follicular number for Eccritotarsini. To Miridae, the pair of medial accessory glands is often shorter than the lateral ones, as indicated by the gland morphology in Bryocorinae and Mirinae. A single pair of glands in B. nigra suggests it to be an autapomorphy in this taxon. We notice that a subdivided seminal vesicle is described only for Mirinae and no other heteropteran so far. There is a continuous sperm production in P. incurvus in the adult by the presence of cysts at distinct developmental stages. Also, sperm morphometry was unique for each species, and the total length in B. nigra (282 µm) was nearly twice that found for P. incurvus (174 µm) and S. brasiliensis (135 µm).
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Acknowledgements
We want to thank Prof. Paulo Sergio Fiuza Ferreira (Universidade Federal de Viçosa) to identify specimens and http://www.proof-reading-service.com for reviewing the English language. This work was supported by CAPES (Finance Code 001) and CNPq (Process 140905/2020-0).
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This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001, and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)—Process 140905/2020-0.
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PHR: investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing; GD: investigation, writing—review and editing; CF: investigation, writing—review and editing, visualization; JL-N: conceptualisation, methodology, investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, supervision.
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Rezende, P.H., Dias, G., Folly, C. et al. Male reproductive system and sperm morphology of Eccritotarsini plant bugs (Heteroptera: Miridae). Zoomorphology 140, 257–267 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-021-00525-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-021-00525-5