Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Israel Journal of Zoology, cilt.46, sa.4, ss.249-259, 2000 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
The meadow spittlebug Philaenus spumarius is a well-known insect because of its striking color/pattern variation on the dorsal and ventral surfaces of adults. The genetics of the dorsal color/pattern polymorphism has been widely studied. Natural populations of this homopteran have been reported to show ventral melanism associated with climatic conditions. Although at first sight certain individuals can be scored as dark and light ventrally, the pigmentation may range continuously from very dark to very light, suggesting that the variation is under polygenic control. The inheritance of ventral melanism has been little studied. This is the first report to involve a detailed laboratory investigation of ventral melanism in P. spumarius. The data, containing 568 individuals, including 40 parents and 528 progeny, which were obtained from laboratory crossing experiments, revealed that ventral darkness variation in P. spumarius is heritable and is a continuous trait. Regression analysis of offspring on mid-parent for ventral darkness showed that heritability of this color variation in P. spumarius is high (h2 = 0.73 ± 0.06, mean ± standard deviation, p < 0.001). It is inherited through both female (h2 = 0.90 ± 0.11, p < 0.001) and male (h2 = 0.90 ± 0.08, p < 0.001) parents.