Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Finicky Females Speedy Speciation
Science Daily reports that "Biologists at Lehigh University and the University of Maryland have identified a cricket living in Hawaii's forests as the world's fastest-evolving invertebrate.
"Finicky mating behavior appears to be the driving force behind the speedy speciation of the Laupala cricket, the scientists wrote in the Jan. 27 issue of Nature magazine.
"Females in the Laupala genus detect tiny differences in the pulse rates of male courtship songs, which differ from one Laupala species to the next. They refuse to mate with males of other species, thus promoting the formation of new species."
"Finicky mating behavior appears to be the driving force behind the speedy speciation of the Laupala cricket, the scientists wrote in the Jan. 27 issue of Nature magazine.
"Females in the Laupala genus detect tiny differences in the pulse rates of male courtship songs, which differ from one Laupala species to the next. They refuse to mate with males of other species, thus promoting the formation of new species."
