Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Svenson GJ
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5131372 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Svenson Gavin J GJ Brannoch Sydney K SK Rodrigues Henrique M HM O'Hanlon James C JC Wieland Frank F
Scientific reports 20161201
Here we reconstruct the evolutionary shift towards floral simulation in orchid mantises and suggest female predatory selection as the likely driving force behind the development of extreme sexual size dimorphism. Through analysis of body size data and phylogenetic modelling of trait evolution, we recovered an ancestral shift towards sexual dimorphisms in both size and appearance in a lineage of flower-associated praying mantises. Sedentary female flower mantises dramatically increased in size pr ...[more]