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Can facultative parthenogenesis occur in biparental mealybug species?

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Abstract

The existence of facultative parthenogenesis in mealybugs has been reported by different authors and questioned by others in relation to certain species. We tested the hypothesis of facultative parthenogenesis in relation to three mealybug species, Planococcus citri (Risso), Pseudococcus calceolariae (Maskell) and Pseudococcus viburni (Signoret). The results suggest that these mealybug species are obligate amphimictic.

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Acknowledgments

The comments and suggestions made by two anonymous reviewers regarding an earlier version of the manuscript are gratefully acknowledged. This research was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and co-funded by FEDER, as part of Project no. POCI/AGR/57580/2004. EBS received a grant from FCT (SFRH/BPD/22145/2005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Protecção de Plantas e de Fitoecologia, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (ISA/UTL), 1349-017, Lisbon, Portugal

    Elsa Borges da Silva & José Carlos Franco

  2. Centro de Estudos Florestais, ISA/UTL, 1349-017, Lisbon, Portugal

    Elsa Borges da Silva & José Carlos Franco

  3. Department of Entomology, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel

    Zvi Mendel

Authors
  1. Elsa Borges da Silva
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  2. Zvi Mendel
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  3. José Carlos Franco
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Correspondence to Elsa Borges da Silva.

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Borges da Silva, E., Mendel, Z. & Franco, J.C. Can facultative parthenogenesis occur in biparental mealybug species?. Phytoparasitica 38, 19–21 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12600-009-0069-9

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