| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,550,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,050,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥260,000 (Direct Cost: ¥200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥60,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥3,380,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥780,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Animal genitalia of internal fertilizers generally show a rapid evolutionary rate compared with other morphological characters. However, compared to interspecific diversities in male genitalia, female genitalia, which usually consist of soft structures without conspicuous landmarks, received less attention because of the difficulty of observation. In this study, efficient methods to detect and describe diversities in female genital traits were explored using in-copula samples of various insect taxa. As the result, a mixture of benzyl alcohol and benzyl benzoate (BABB) has been proven to be highly effective to make insect exoskeleton transparent. The method revealed that female genitalia generally show a sizable structural diversity in their soft parts corresponding to the species-specific male genitalia. Experiments showed that the structural fitting between male and female genitalia reduces mating costs for females such caused by copulatory wounding and other mechanisms.
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