Quantitative genetic estimates of morphometric variation in wild-caught and laboratory-reared houseflies

Abstract

Quantitative genetic estimates of morphometric traits in the housefly, Musca domestica L, were made on parents captured in the wild or reared in the laboratory. Phenotypic variation of morphometric traits declined within the laboratory, but as the additive genetic component of variation also declined, there was no net change in narrow-sense heritabilities of these traits across environments. Additive genetic variances were inflated only when wild-caught females were used as parents, suggesting that a maternal effect was present.