Journal
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 8, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-22155-6
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Funding
- Czech Science Foundation [18-14942S]
- Faculty of Science UP [PrF2018]
- Malaysian Ministry of Environment
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Multiple patterns and intraspecific polymorphism should not persist in mutualistic Mullerian systems due to purifying and frequency-dependent selection, but they are commonly identified in nature. We analysed molecular phylogeny and reconstructed dispersal history of 58 species of Dilophotes (Coleoptera: Lycidae) in Asia. Dilophotes colonized the Great Sundas and Malay Peninsula where they joined extensive mimetic communities of net-winged beetles. We identified the brightly bi-coloured males and females which adverged on five occasions to different autochthonous models. This is the first described case of Mullerian sexual dimorphism based on sex-specific body size. We propose that the constraint, i.e. the conservative sexual size dimorphism, forced the unprofitable prey to such complex adaptation in a multi-pattern environment. Although mimetic sexual dimorphism has frequently evolved in Dilophotes, a single pattern has been maintained by both sexes in multiple closely related, sympatrically occurring species. Some patterns may be suboptimal because they are rare, crudely resemble co-mimics, or are newly evolved, but they persist in Mullerian communities for a long time. We assume that failure to closely resemble the most common model can increase the diversity of large Mullerian communities and produce mimetic dimorphism.
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