Sex comb and other pupal systems

Sex comb is enclosed in yellow square

 A sex comb is a male-specific group of bristles located on the first leg in many species of the Drosophilidae family  (Atallah et al, 2009).

 

 

 

Yellow bracket shows sex comb location

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sex comb plays an important role in increasing the amount of successful matings in many different Drosophila species

 

 

 

Drosophila sex combs morphological diversity

This row of bristles is a secondary sexual trait, displaying high morphological divergence during evolution. In many Drosophila species, the sex comb undergoes an interesting morphogenetic process, in that this group of bristles rotates during development

 

Sex combs have been used to explore several developmental and evolutionary questions (True, 2006; Kopp, 2011)