Haploid female parthenogenesis in the false spider mite Brevipalpus obovatus (Acari: Tenuipalpidae)

✍ Scribed by L. P. Pijnacker; M. A. Ferwerda; H. R. Bolland; W. Helle

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 510 KB
• Volume: 51
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-6707
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00121613

✦ Synopsis

Brevipalpus obovatus Donnadieu is a thelytokous species having two chromosomes in soma and germ line. G-banding pattern and internal differences during anaphase indicate that the two chromosomes are nonhomologous and that females are haploid with n = 2. The same number applies for the males of the same species. Also the closely related bisexual species B. russulus shows a haploid number of 2. It is concluded that B. obovatus reproduces by haploid female parthenogenesis. So far, this reproductive system has never been shown to occur in the animal kingdom. Its occurrence in a taxon with a haplo-diploid sex-determination is discussed.