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Systematics, phylogeny and biogeography
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Alignment and homology of male terminalia in Curculionoidea and other Coleoptera

Marek Wanat
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Museum of Natural History, Wrocław University, Sienkiewicza 21, 50-335 Wrocław, Poland.

B Corresponding author. Email: wanatm@biol.uni.wroc.pl

Invertebrate Systematics 21(2) 147-171 https://doi.org/10.1071/IS05055
Submitted: 16 November 2005  Accepted: 30 November 2006   Published: 21 May 2007

Abstract

Male genitalia and associated internal sclerotised plates have been long recognised in beetle taxonomy, but their relative position in the connecting membrane and the genital membrane folding patterns have never been thoroughly investigated. In this study, the structure of the genital chamber in weevils (Curculionoidea) and other Coleoptera has been investigated in detail, focusing primarily on the alignment of the 9th abdominal segment and true genital plates. Three basic types of genital alignment are recognised based on the orientation of sclerotised plates and membrane folding: (1) a primitive eucinetid type (both 9th segment and tegmen non-inverted); (2) a derived phytophagan type (both 9th segment and tegmen inverted) and (3) a cucujid type (9th segment non-inverted, tegmen inverted). A different origin is here postulated for the parameroid plate in Curculionoidea, Chrysomeloidea and a part of the Cucujoidea (from the fold of the membrane linking tergite 9 with the tegmen) and for the true parameres in the remaining Coleoptera (from the fold of the membrane linking the tegmen with the aedeagus); hence these alignment types are considered non-homologous. The superfamily Cucujoidea was found to be heterogeneous with regard to genital alignment and considered polyphyletic. The proctiger and the paraprocts of the beetles are interpreted as belonging to the 9th abdominal segment and no extrategminal plates of the 10th segment were found in Coleoptera. Arguments for and against a hypothetical homology of beetle genitalia with abdominal segments 10 and 11 are discussed.


Acknowledgements

I thank Drs John F. Lawrence, Petr Švácha, Adam Ślipiński, Alfred F. Newton Jr., Jarmila Kukalova-Peck, Michael Ivie, and Janusz Kubrakiewicz for their critical comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript, and the two anonymous referees for the great job they have done and hundreds of suggestions improving the text. Ms Anna Mucha and Dr Łukasz Pasśko are appreciated for their great technical help with the illustrations. I am indebted to Drs Beata M. Pokryszko and Robert A. D. Cameron for their linguistic advice and corrections, and to the editors for their hard work on the final version of the manuscript. Dr Adam Ślipiński is especially acknowledged for his encouragement and advice in selection of the non-weevil taxa for the study, and for the loan of some relevant species. The studies presented herein, as well as the presentation of their preliminary results at the XXII International Congress of Entomology (15–21 August 2004, Brisbane, Australia), were supported by the former State Committee for Scientific Research, currently the Ministry of Scientific Research and Scientific Technology, Poland (grant no. 3 P04C 08223).


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Appendix 1.  Alphabetical list of species studied
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Appendix 2.  Systematic list of species studied
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Appendix 2. (continued)
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