Hotea

Hotea
Hotea curculionoides
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Family: Scutelleridae
Genus: Hotea
Amyot & Serville, 1843

Hotea is a genus of shield-backed bugs belonging to the family Scutelleridae.

Species

[1]

Description

Male jewel bugs of the genus Hotea possess an unusually large, spiky, and heavily sclerotized genitalia. They are used in a mating practice known as traumatic insemination, a result of evolutionary sexual conflict. Male Hotea bugs tear through the female reproductive ducts to deposit sperm, inflicting substantial damage to the female in the process. [2]

References

  1. Biolib
  2. Göran Arnqvist & Locke Rowe (2005). Sexual conflict Princeton University Press. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-691-12218-2.
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