Sexual Difference in Flight Abilities and Flight Muscle Dimorphism in Female Adults of a Chafer, Anomala schonfeldti Ohaus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

Abstract

In a chafer, Anomala schonfeldti Ohaus, collected from turfgrass in central Japan, 80.0% of male adults flew in a flight mill, as compared with only 5.9% of female ones. There was no significant difference in either the flight distance, flight duration or flight velocity between the male and female flyers. Whereas all males had flight muscles, only 23.5% of females had them. Thus the flightlessness of most female adults may be attributed to the lack of flight muscles. Nineteen percent of females reared in the laboratory did not have the muscles, suggesting that an intrinsic factor is responsible for the flight muscle development in A. schonfeldti. © 1993, JAPANESE SOCIETY OF APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY. All rights reserved.