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Scientists uncover re-evolution of disruptive camouflage in horned praying mantises

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camA scientist from The Cleveland  Museum of Natural  History led research that  revised the horned praying mantis  group and traced the evolution  of its distinctive camouflage features.  Dr. Gavin Svenson and his  colleagues identified a new genus  and new tribe of praying mantis  and discovered that disruptive  camouflage evolved twice within  the group. The second, more recent,  occasion occurred after the  re-evolution of a special leg lobe  that disguises the body profile to  help the insect hide from predators.  The research was published  Nov. 16, 2015 online in the journal  Systematic Entomology.  Svenson and the team studied the  origins of 16 features that provide  disruptive crypsis for the Central  and South American horned praying  mantises of the subfamily Vatinae,  all of which contribute to  their camouflage strategy. These  features include a head process  or horn and leafy looking lobes  on the legs. The team analyzed 33  species and nearly 400 specimens  from Museum collections in the  United States, South America and  Europe as well as insects Svenson  recently sampled from South  America.  “Praying mantises depend on  camouflage to avoid predators,  but we have known little about the  patterns of how body structures  contributing to crypsis evolved,”  said Dr. Gavin Svenson, curator of  invertebrate zoology at The Cleveland  Museum of Natural History  and lead author of the study. “We  discovered that two mantis lineages  evolved structural camouflage  millions of years apart in very  similar ways. This not only suggests  that re-evolution occurred,  but demonstrates that the developmental  mechanisms controlling  cryptic features may be more ancient  than the camouflaged mantises  themselves.”  The research revealed that leafy  lobes on the middle and hind legs  evolved during the first origin of  the horned mantises. Afterward,  one lineage invested in a camouflage  strategy and began to accumulate  other leg lobes, an extended  head process or horn, and  even lobes on the abdomen, while  the other lost these early evolved  leg lobes and relied only on coloration  to blend in with vegetation.  However, a second, smaller lineage  of mantises within this color  camouflaged group began to gain  disruptive cryptic features about  20 million years later after the reevolution  of those same early originating  leg lobes. This second shift  to a strategy of disruptive camouflage  appears to have followed a  remarkably similar path as the  first through the accumulation of  leg lobes in the same positions, as  well as a similar extended head  process or horn.  Researchers suggested that the  second origin of disruptive camouflage  was most likely controlled by  genetic and developmental mechanisms  that were already present.  Essentially, the capability to evolve  camouflage was already in the genetic  toolkit of the lineage and those  features re-emerged when it was advantageous  for survival. According  to Svenson, since many other, more  distantly related, mantis groups  have disruptive camouflage, it may  have evolved very early in praying  mantises and is mostly a matter of  being turned on or off in a variety  of ways.  The scientists used DNA sequence  data generated in the Cleveland  Museum of Natural History’s  DNA Laboratory and studied morphological  features to reclassify  the group. The newly identified  genus, Alangularis, recognizes  a unique and colorful species of  praying mantis that was incorrectly  included within another  genus. The new genus name translates  to “angled wings,” which  reflects its acute wing tips. The  new tribe, Heterovatini, was established  to include two genera  that share many characteristics  with the rest of Vatinae, but retain  no disruptive cryptic features other  than the shared leg lobes.  “Finding that camouflage evolved  twice in the horned mantises was  surprising,” said Svenson. “But  even more amazing is how alike the  two distantly related camouflaged  groups really are and what that  means for camouflage evolution in  mantises as a whole.”  Svenson’s research is focused on  the evolutionary patterns of relationship,  distribution and complex  features of praying mantises. His  current research project aims to  align new sources of relationship  evidence (DNA sequence data) with  morphology and other features to  create a new and accurate classification  system for praying mantises  that reflects true evolutionary relationships.

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