Alex Trillo

Interactions between primary and secondary sexual characters in the tortoise beetle Acromis sparsa. My project focuses on the development and evolution of different types of exaggerated morphologies in animals. In male insects, exoskeletal weapons influence their ability to acquire mates, whereas genitalia influence their ability to successfully fertilize these acquired mates. To date, male weapons and genitalia have been studied separately. However, this approach may be inadequate because weapons and genitalia are likely to interact, and jointly affect male reproductive success. The goal of my project is to integrate the fields of development, behavior and evolution to reveal the nature of the interactions between these different morphologies and to determine the combined factors that affect reproductive success on whole organisms. This objective is being addressed with a series of experiments that determine the relative importance of weapons and genitalia in the reproductive success of males of the beetle Acromis sparsa.

CV [pdf]