Molinier, C., Boyer, L., & Villamil, N. 2021 Digest: Evolution and maintenance of androdioecy in a haplodiploid insect. Evolution 75(11): 3000–3001
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Notes: Mongue et al. (2021) have now discovered androdioecy in a worldwide invasive pest, the scale insect Icerya purchasi. They found very low genetic variation and population structure in 12 microsatellites in 295 individuals distributed worldwide, with 90% of the samples carrying either one of two closely related haplotypes. They also found high but variable homozygosity, in line with a high but not maximal selfing rate (82%). As hermaphrodites very likely only self-fertilize, this suggests that males occasionally participate in reproduction and hence that this haplodiploid species is functionally androdioecious.
