LINKAGE STUDIES IN TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM HERBST. VI. "DIVERGENT ELYTRA," AN INCOMPLETELY RECESSIVE SEX-LINKED GENE

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Abstract
A mutant, found among imagines emerging from pupae sent into space by means of a rocket off Wallops Island, Virginia, December 4, 1959, is described for this tenebrionid flour beetle and given the symbol dve. Typically, in the adult, the elytra diverge, sometimes starting at the scutellum, exposing varying portions of the unsclerotized dorsal surface of the abdomen, and the membranous wings may be temporarily blistered. In the pupa both the membranous wings and the elytra curve away from the abdomen. Data are given to establish that the incompletely recessive sex-linked dve gene is located about 11 units away from pygmy (py), between py and sp (spotted). Viability of dve is reduced by about 20 per cent in the juvenile stages, and imagoes may die at an early age, often before copulation is accomplished. Interaction of dve and py results in 65 per cent mortality of dve py males.
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