Anormalidades en el aparato reproductor de una hembra de Onthophagus hirculus Mannh. (Coleoptera Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae)

Abstract

Recent observations of a female of the species Onthophagus hirculus revealed 2 ovaries, with one ovariole for each, and two lateral oviducts. This structural arrangement is highly uncommon in the Scarabaeinae subfamily, a group in which the females present only a left ovary with one ovariole. These new anatomical observations and those of another three females in other Scarabaeinae genera -together with what is known about preimaginal development in this subfamily and the anatomy of Scarabaeoidea reproductive apparatus- can be considered evidence of the phylogenetic and ontogenetic process in this subfamily of reduction from 2 ovaries with 6 ovarioles each, to 1 ovary with 1 ovariole.