Unraveling the mysteries of the golden beetle

Unraveling the mysteries of the golden beetle https://i1.wp.com/www.eresviral.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Desentrañando-los-misterios-del-escarabajo-dorado.png?fit=245%2C146&ssl=1

Unraveling the mysteries of the golden beetle







While the sun was setting over the cloud forest in western Panama, Lynette Strickland still did not find what she was looking for. He spent the whole day exploring Fortuna, a mountainous area that encompasses the Continental Divide, near the border of Panama and Costa Rica, in search of a golden glint. But every time I turned a leaf or asked the Smithsonian beetle expert Don Windsor 'Is this?' The answer was 'No'.



His field trip to one of the most picturesque forest reserves in Panama is almost coming to an end, Strickland moved a few meters away from the group. "I finally leaned over, flipped a leaf and this incredible drop of gold appeared," he recalls.



The species of turtle beetle, Chelymorpha alternans, is a multicolored mystery of the animal kingdom. The individuals are found in five different colors, including the common gold shape with metallic stripes, a red brick version and three different black and red patterns. They coexist in different proportions in the tropical forests of Panama and nobody knows why this species has such a variety of colors.



"When I came to Panama a few years ago, I found two of these beetles mating, and I thought it was probably a coincidence; Sometimes animals mate with other species by mistake, although their descendants do not usually survive, "said scientist Annette Aiello. "Then Don told me that these were color morphs of the same species."



"Yes, a number of scientists who have seen my Panama collection could not believe that they all belong to the same species," Strickland said.







Turtle beetle, 'Chelymorpha alternans'. (Photo: STRI)



Three and a half years since his trip to Fortuna, in a seminar at the Smithsonian, the researchers talked about the synchronicities that on certain subjects seemed to presage their work.



"My dad is black, my Hispanic mother, from Mexico. I grew up in Texas, and this is my sister, "said Lynette, showing a picture on her phone. Her sister has blond, straight hair. "People can not believe it. I never thought of that as one of the reasons why I'm so interested in the genetics of beetles of different colors, but it makes sense. "



The color differences in humans have to do with the extreme environments where different populations evolved. The racial groups that evolved under the scorching sun still have genes for melanin, a natural sunscreen, while people who evolved in the coldest, darkest places on the planet do not produce as much melanin, so their skin is white.



"Color is super fascinating," said Lynette. "In this species of turtle beetle, it's about discovering how color differences can be beneficial by giving them some kind of advantage when it comes to predation, selection and / or living in different climates."



Color figures in the three main survival rules: eating, avoiding being eaten, making babies. This turtle beetle nibbles vines in the family of the Convolvulaceae or morning glory. But Strickland's first series of experiments with the beetle morphotypes addresses the other two subjects and has led to some fascinating results.



First, to observe the predation, Strickland took the five morphotypes of the beetle and fed them to common predators, or at least tried. The diners showed a range of results from total depredation to total abstinence.



The golden silk spiders or nephilas ate (or wrapped in silk and kept for later) all the beetles of all the colorful morphs that Strickland threw into their nets. On the other hand, the praying mantises, very selective, only stabbed the beetles with their front legs (which act as taste buds) before rejecting them completely.



The most curious results came from the colonies of the Aztec chartifex ant, known for their huge teardrop nests. Strickland built platforms at the bottom of nests where defensive ants swarm and attack any invading beetle. Since ants are social creatures that make group decisions, they initially took a couple of hours to decide what to do with the beetles. In the end, the dorados would be thrown out of the platform, the red and black phenotypes would be consumed, and those that were completely red would eat the first three times they were offered, but they would be discarded in the following seven times the beetles were presented .



"This is pretty indicative of a learned aversion to something," Strickland said. "The point of having a bright or conspicuous coloration is, in theory, sending a signal to other predators: 'I'm nasty, do not eat me.'"



The experiments of Strickland and Windsor showed that the females prefer to mate with other beetles of the same color, which seems contradictory when it comes to maintaining the variation of color. However, they can mate with any color morphism (called phenotypes), which confirms that the beetles are, in fact, a single species, at least for now.



Strickland's genetic research shows that color in these beetles is a very simple inherited trait. The loci that determine the color, specific pieces of DNA within the chromosome, only require small differences to produce the drastic variation in color.



Your future genetic work will delve into the differences between each color morphism to determine if they are in the process of becoming individual species. And chemical analyzes will determine if the morphs have different toxins, which may explain the selective feeding behavior of A. chartifex ants.



"Understanding how different factors combine to maintain diversity is beautiful," Strickland said. "To say that a species is better the more diverse it is, is a really great idea." (Source: STRI / DICYT)

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