The "Lock and Key Hypothesis" is a simple model for how different lineages or populations accomplish reproductive isolation. Since many species are poorly known except as museum specimens, particularly for arthropods, morphological characters of the genitalia are often the primary basis by which species are delimited in these taxa. The molecular revolution has been poised to reorganize our understanding of relationships between populations, or individuals even, and thus could drastically alter the interpretation of "what is a key" and "what is a lock" to include life history or behavior. I am interested in feedback from taxonomists and systematists who regularly work from these ideas.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3235471/
As with many (perhaps all) biological hypotheses, that of "lock and key" should not be treated in "absolute" terms: there are many possible isolating mechansms, and even within a narrow group of organisms some may work in one case, some other[-s] in another. In "my" Buprestidae the "lock and key" frequently seems to be the main isolating mechanism between sympatric relatives, but sometimes is apparently not involved. This fact has important (but frequently not properly understood) consequences in taxonmic practice: great difference in genitalic morphology is a solid evidence of reproductive isolation (and, so, specific distinction) but similar or even identical genitalia do not prove conspecificity! Anyway, I do not thnk the question has anything important to do with "molecular revolution".
Thanks for the answer Roman. Are there many behavioral or mate choice studies of living individuals for your Buprestids? If I could get my hands on live naive virgin caddisflies I could do lots of fun experiments, but most of my material is in alcohol and sometimes on pins. This is a major limitation for any study seeking to expand the definition of the "key" or the "lock" beyond simple morphology. There are good reasons to suspect pheromones to be involved in some of the apparent cases of isolation-without-genitalic-divergence but demonstrating this requires some serious problem solving of logistics and collection effort.
I am taxonomist, working almost exclusively with pinned material, so behavioural studies are not my "active" interest (I am interested in "lock and key" mechanism mainly in the context of the - usually much overestimated - value of genitalic morphology in phylogenetic analyses]. But also from literature I do not remember to have ever met any report of behavioural observations or experiments relevant to your question on Buprestidae.
In the case of butterflies, the lock and key hypothesis does not work very well. Hybridisation between more or less strictly related species is not uncommon and mechanisms maintaining overall species cohesion are generally pheromonal and behavioural-
Emilio Balletto
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Ecology