D3278: Factors involved in the reproductive strategies of Vulsirea violacea (Fabricius) and Ramosiana insignis (Blanchard) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae)

Vulsirea violacea (Fabricius) and Ramosiana insignis (Blanchard), two bugs that in previous studies it was reported that they are specialists of the same host plant Schoepfia schreberi J. F. Gmel. (Schoepfiaceae), however they differ in the structures on which they feed and the oviposition site. Furthermore, R. insignis exhibits asynchronous oviposition of additional eggs and suffers from egg parasitism, facts that have not been addressed in V. violacea. The objective of this work was to determine comparative parameters of the reproductive biology of V. violacea and R. insignis in their natural host. In this study, both species present a very similar and interesting reproductive behavior, it was discovered that V. violacea uses the same oviposition strategy as R. insignis, which is only known from these insects. Both species are sexually dimorphic in size, with females being significantly larger than males, and the duration of copulation counted in days in the case of V. violacea was an average of 22.32 ± 1.25 days and in the case of R. insignis an average of 66.91 ± 3.9 days. The number of eggs laid by V. violacea on average was 107 ± 13.81 normal eggs and 88.83 ± 8.9 additional eggs, and for R. insignis 256 ± 14.78 normal eggs and 64.22 ± 11.40 additional eggs.

We conclude that both females sub-social bugs present a remarkable combination of reproductive strategies, Prolonged and variable copulation durations, provisioning of additional eggs and oviposition site selection.