A morphological study of female genital papillae of Etheostoma was conducted to examine the evolution of papillae as predicted by molecular phylogenies, and to examine correlations between papilla morphology and spawning behaviors and oviposition. Thirteen characters were used to describe variation in papillae in 128 species. Based on maximum likelihood ancestral state reconstructions, we corroborated several molecular phylogenetic hypotheses with morphology and developed hypotheses on several functional traits/adaptive traits and their associations with spawning behaviors. Papillar synapomorphies supported a close relationship between Allohistium and (Etheostoma + Nanostoma) + Ulocentra, a monophyletic Catonotus, and a sister-group relationship between E. vitreum and Boleosoma. Results suggest that the most recent common ancestor of Etheostoma buried eggs and had a simple tube with a distal, posteriorly oriented genital pore. All egg-burying species, except species of Nothonotus, have tube papillae that inject eggs into substrate. Females of Nothonotus have short, mound, and mound-tube papillae and typically bury their entire body to deposit eggs. Egg-clumping species have mound papillae. Most species that attach eggs to objects above the substrate, the most common behavior in Etheostoma, have tube papillae; the only exceptions are E. (Psychromaster) pallididorsum with a mound papilla, and E. (Vaillantia) davisoni with a mound-tube papilla. All egg-clustering species have complex, wide, and pleated rosette papillae with ventrally directed genital pores for adpressing eggs to the undersides of rocks or logs. The only species with a rosette papilla that is not an egg-clusterer is E. vitreum, which has been described as a communal egg-attacher. The papilla of E. vitreum is unique in being rosette with dense villi and a bifurcate papillar platform. The basal platform, swollen tissue immediately posterior to the base of the genital papilla that probably enhances maneuverability and precision of oviposition, appeared at the base of a large clade including all egg-clustering species and a large number of egg-attaching species. Adaptations in papilla morphology likely played a role in the expanded use of stream habitats and the diversification of darters.
Skip Nav Destination
Close
Article navigation
1 March 2015
Research Article|
February 18 2015
Comparative Morphology and Evolution of Genital Papillae in a Genus of Darters (Percidae: Etheostoma)
Zachary P. Martin;
Zachary P. Martin
1Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Cheatham Hall, Virginia Tech, 310 West Campus Drive, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0321; E-mail:zpmartin@vt.edu. Send reprint requests to this address.
2Division of Ichthyology, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Dickinson Hall, 1659 Museum Road, Gainesville, Florida 32611; E-mail: (LMP)lpage@flmnh.ufl.edu.
Search for other works by this author on:
Lawrence M. Page
Lawrence M. Page
2Division of Ichthyology, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Dickinson Hall, 1659 Museum Road, Gainesville, Florida 32611; E-mail: (LMP)lpage@flmnh.ufl.edu.
Search for other works by this author on:
Copeia (2015) 103 (1): 99–124.
Citation
Zachary P. Martin, Lawrence M. Page; Comparative Morphology and Evolution of Genital Papillae in a Genus of Darters (Percidae: Etheostoma). Copeia 1 March 2015; 103 (1): 99–124. doi: https://doi.org/10.1643/CI-14-081
Download citation file:
Close
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Sign in via your Institution
Sign in via your InstitutionCiting articles via
Homing in the Rubí Poison Frog Andinobates bombetes (Dendrobatidae)
Luisa F. Arcila-Pérez, Michelle A. Atehortua-Vallejo, Fernando Vargas-Salinas
Systematics and Taxonomy of Chapalichthys (Cyprinodontiformes: Goodeidae), a Small Genus of Live-Bearers from Central Mexico
Kyle R. Piller, Devin D. Bloom, John Lyons, Norman Mercado-Silva
Comprehensive Analysis of Salamander Hybridization Suggests a Consistent Relationship between Genetic Distance and Reproductive Isolation across Tetrapods
Scott Lucas Melander, Rachel Lockridge Mueller
New Species of Leaf-litter Toad of the Rhinella margaritifera Species Group (Anura: Bufonidae) from Amazonia
Miquéias Ferrão, Albertina Pimentel Lima, Santiago Ron, Sueny Paloma dos Santos, James Hanken