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The genetics of Tribolium and related species
3. stored Prod. Res., 1967, Vol. 2, pp. 351-352.
Pergamon
Press Ltd.
Printed
in Great
Britain.
BOOK REVIEW
The Genetics of Tribolium and Related Species. ALEXANDER SOKOLOFF; 1966. Supplement 1 to Advances in Genetics, edited by E. W. CASPARI and J. M. THODAY. Academic Press, New York. xii + 212 pp. 68s. THE INTENSIVEstudy of the genetics of ~&_&urn was started only about seven years ago but the amount of information collected in this time, principally by the author and his assistants but also by workers in three or four other laboratories, is astonishing. This monograph, therefore, fills a real need and will be a standard reference work for many years. If the present rate of accumulation of data is maintained, it is possible that frequent addenda or revisions will be needed. This edition gives a very thorough coverage of the current knowledge of Ulomine Tenebrionidae together with a much less comprehensive account of other beetles. The introduction deals very briefly with the basic essentiab of methods of maintaining Tribolium stocks and might with advantage have been considered more fully. The very short chapter on the taxonomy of the Tenebrionidae overlooks two recently described species of Tribolium, T. beccarii by Gridelli in 1950 and 1. uezumii by Nakane in 1963. After another short but valuable chapter on the cytology of Tribolium exactly 100 pages are devoted to mutants in the genus, many of which have been described in the Tribolium Information Bulletin but not formally published. This exhaustive catalogue is the real substance of the book but there are several equally instructive chapters that discuss topics such as mutation rate, crossing-over, multiple alleles, time of gene action, homoeotic mutants, gene homology and morphogenesis of the antenna in as much detail as is possible in the present state of knowledge. The extension of the field of study beyond the Tenebrionidae to other families of beetles is not exhaustive, and we must hope that users of this book will realize that the thoroughness of the monograph for Tenebrionidae is not maintained for other families. The genetic facts constantly stimulate the non-geneticist to thought. How much do the antenna1 peculiarities of some Cucujids have in common with the mutants of Tribolium? Are strains like the small and large Tenebrio molitor (which also grow at different rates) selected from a single population, present in most stored products beetles as appears likely, and is the ‘active’ form of Callosobwhus madatus another expression of this condition ? How far does the environment influence the appearance of mutants ? Most experienced stored products entomologists have seen individuals (often dead) very like some of the mutants and, especially five or more years ago, dismissed them as distortions caused by crowding or heat. Threshold temperatures at critical growth stages, indeed, do lead to distortions. The chapter that causes an applied ecologist most disquiet, perhaps, is that on the 351
352
Book Review
‘Genetics of Populations’ but the ecologist, not the author is to blame for this. Handling populations in the laboratory almost inevitably leads, by Park’s method, to over-crowding, and by the renewal of food to cyclical changes in culture conditions; or else by McDonald’s method, to a system where adults and possibly larvae can choose between several environments, which all become over-crowded. The study of populations therefore tends to be the study of crowded populations rather than of the sparser ones that occur more commonly in stored foods and food machinery, but the former, of course, are more productive of mutants if only because It is extremely interesting to note how similar are they contain so many individuals. the results of census studies with populations handled normally and those handled by the method of Lerner and Ho in which adults are discarded while still very young; and very significant that these results are generally similar to those predictable by analytical study of the life cycle of individuals in the laboratory. It will be very convenient if ‘fitness’ for over-crowded cultures and for under-crowded experiments really correspond so well because the developmental and oviposition rates and natural mortality of mutants are reasonably easy to measure quickly. The editors of Advances in Genetics must be congratulated for publishing this volume as a supplement. It can be highly recommended to all those who work with Tribolium or other stored products beetles.
Agricultural Research Council, Pest Infestation Laboratory, Slough, Bucks., England.
R. W. HOWE
Pergamon
Press Ltd.
Printed
in Great
Britain.
BOOK REVIEW
The Genetics of Tribolium and Related Species. ALEXANDER SOKOLOFF; 1966. Supplement 1 to Advances in Genetics, edited by E. W. CASPARI and J. M. THODAY. Academic Press, New York. xii + 212 pp. 68s. THE INTENSIVEstudy of the genetics of ~&_&urn was started only about seven years ago but the amount of information collected in this time, principally by the author and his assistants but also by workers in three or four other laboratories, is astonishing. This monograph, therefore, fills a real need and will be a standard reference work for many years. If the present rate of accumulation of data is maintained, it is possible that frequent addenda or revisions will be needed. This edition gives a very thorough coverage of the current knowledge of Ulomine Tenebrionidae together with a much less comprehensive account of other beetles. The introduction deals very briefly with the basic essentiab of methods of maintaining Tribolium stocks and might with advantage have been considered more fully. The very short chapter on the taxonomy of the Tenebrionidae overlooks two recently described species of Tribolium, T. beccarii by Gridelli in 1950 and 1. uezumii by Nakane in 1963. After another short but valuable chapter on the cytology of Tribolium exactly 100 pages are devoted to mutants in the genus, many of which have been described in the Tribolium Information Bulletin but not formally published. This exhaustive catalogue is the real substance of the book but there are several equally instructive chapters that discuss topics such as mutation rate, crossing-over, multiple alleles, time of gene action, homoeotic mutants, gene homology and morphogenesis of the antenna in as much detail as is possible in the present state of knowledge. The extension of the field of study beyond the Tenebrionidae to other families of beetles is not exhaustive, and we must hope that users of this book will realize that the thoroughness of the monograph for Tenebrionidae is not maintained for other families. The genetic facts constantly stimulate the non-geneticist to thought. How much do the antenna1 peculiarities of some Cucujids have in common with the mutants of Tribolium? Are strains like the small and large Tenebrio molitor (which also grow at different rates) selected from a single population, present in most stored products beetles as appears likely, and is the ‘active’ form of Callosobwhus madatus another expression of this condition ? How far does the environment influence the appearance of mutants ? Most experienced stored products entomologists have seen individuals (often dead) very like some of the mutants and, especially five or more years ago, dismissed them as distortions caused by crowding or heat. Threshold temperatures at critical growth stages, indeed, do lead to distortions. The chapter that causes an applied ecologist most disquiet, perhaps, is that on the 351
352
Book Review
‘Genetics of Populations’ but the ecologist, not the author is to blame for this. Handling populations in the laboratory almost inevitably leads, by Park’s method, to over-crowding, and by the renewal of food to cyclical changes in culture conditions; or else by McDonald’s method, to a system where adults and possibly larvae can choose between several environments, which all become over-crowded. The study of populations therefore tends to be the study of crowded populations rather than of the sparser ones that occur more commonly in stored foods and food machinery, but the former, of course, are more productive of mutants if only because It is extremely interesting to note how similar are they contain so many individuals. the results of census studies with populations handled normally and those handled by the method of Lerner and Ho in which adults are discarded while still very young; and very significant that these results are generally similar to those predictable by analytical study of the life cycle of individuals in the laboratory. It will be very convenient if ‘fitness’ for over-crowded cultures and for under-crowded experiments really correspond so well because the developmental and oviposition rates and natural mortality of mutants are reasonably easy to measure quickly. The editors of Advances in Genetics must be congratulated for publishing this volume as a supplement. It can be highly recommended to all those who work with Tribolium or other stored products beetles.
Agricultural Research Council, Pest Infestation Laboratory, Slough, Bucks., England.
R. W. HOWE