Andrew Mongue
@ajmongue.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Molecular Ecology at University of Florida's Department of Entomology and Nematology. Comparative genomics and evolutionary genetics of weird reproductive systems.
Character displacement!
January 19, 2026 at 3:53 PM
Character displacement!
Haha well this is our NSF funded project!
And yeah she will mate and lay eggs in the bag, then kind of flop out and die. Neither sex feeds as adults and they live for a couple of days at most at that point!
And yeah she will mate and lay eggs in the bag, then kind of flop out and die. Neither sex feeds as adults and they live for a couple of days at most at that point!
December 9, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Haha well this is our NSF funded project!
And yeah she will mate and lay eggs in the bag, then kind of flop out and die. Neither sex feeds as adults and they live for a couple of days at most at that point!
And yeah she will mate and lay eggs in the bag, then kind of flop out and die. Neither sex feeds as adults and they live for a couple of days at most at that point!
Why this is and more is discussed here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Read it to see how this helps explain the bizarre evolution of dimorphic sperm!
And thanks to co-authors @petrnguyen.bsky.social @tliesenfelt.bsky.social @kkbugtime.bsky.social and Thomas Johnson for all their work on this!!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Read it to see how this helps explain the bizarre evolution of dimorphic sperm!
And thanks to co-authors @petrnguyen.bsky.social @tliesenfelt.bsky.social @kkbugtime.bsky.social and Thomas Johnson for all their work on this!!
Insights from the lack of an enigmatic trait: monomorphic sperm in evergreen bagworm moths and the evolution of sperm dimorphism
Reproductive traits contain some of the most bizarre and unintuitive innovations seen across the tree of life. Chief among these is the sperm dimorphism of butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). Males m...
www.biorxiv.org
December 9, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Why this is and more is discussed here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Read it to see how this helps explain the bizarre evolution of dimorphic sperm!
And thanks to co-authors @petrnguyen.bsky.social @tliesenfelt.bsky.social @kkbugtime.bsky.social and Thomas Johnson for all their work on this!!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Read it to see how this helps explain the bizarre evolution of dimorphic sperm!
And thanks to co-authors @petrnguyen.bsky.social @tliesenfelt.bsky.social @kkbugtime.bsky.social and Thomas Johnson for all their work on this!!
To explore this, we've done genomics, proteomics, and a bit of cytogenetics on the evergreen bagworm.
The one sperm type looks basically like fertilizing sperm, but with some differences from other lep sperm proteomes, like a lack of proteases to break apart bundled fertilizing sperm.
The one sperm type looks basically like fertilizing sperm, but with some differences from other lep sperm proteomes, like a lack of proteases to break apart bundled fertilizing sperm.
December 9, 2025 at 1:41 PM
To explore this, we've done genomics, proteomics, and a bit of cytogenetics on the evergreen bagworm.
The one sperm type looks basically like fertilizing sperm, but with some differences from other lep sperm proteomes, like a lack of proteases to break apart bundled fertilizing sperm.
The one sperm type looks basically like fertilizing sperm, but with some differences from other lep sperm proteomes, like a lack of proteases to break apart bundled fertilizing sperm.
What's weird about bagworms is they only make one type of sperm. "That's not weird," you say, but most butterflies and moths make two types: fertilizing and non-fertilizing sperm, see for instance:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
So bagworms are doing something different to the lep norm...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
So bagworms are doing something different to the lep norm...
Nonfertilizing sperm in Lepidoptera show little evidence for recurrent positive selection
Sperm are among the most variable cells in nature. Some of this variation results from nonadaptive errors in spermatogenesis, but many species consistently produce multiple sperm morphs, the adaptive...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 9, 2025 at 1:41 PM
What's weird about bagworms is they only make one type of sperm. "That's not weird," you say, but most butterflies and moths make two types: fertilizing and non-fertilizing sperm, see for instance:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
So bagworms are doing something different to the lep norm...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
So bagworms are doing something different to the lep norm...
But we're most interested in the adults. In this pic, the grub-like insect is an ADULT female bagworm(!!). The males look like normal moths...extreme sexual dimorphism!!
We're studying how this evolved, but that's another story. Today I want to highlight their sperm biology.
We're studying how this evolved, but that's another story. Today I want to highlight their sperm biology.
December 9, 2025 at 1:41 PM
But we're most interested in the adults. In this pic, the grub-like insect is an ADULT female bagworm(!!). The males look like normal moths...extreme sexual dimorphism!!
We're studying how this evolved, but that's another story. Today I want to highlight their sperm biology.
We're studying how this evolved, but that's another story. Today I want to highlight their sperm biology.
Congrats, a great milestone!!
November 24, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Congrats, a great milestone!!
Aha, beat me to it with the classic, good choice!
November 22, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Aha, beat me to it with the classic, good choice!
This thread needs the Bible...the Perry Bible Fellowship.
November 22, 2025 at 3:44 PM
This thread needs the Bible...the Perry Bible Fellowship.
I've written about this reproductive system, the mix of males and hermaphrodites without pure females (called androdioecy) before, here:
academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...
academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...
Sex, males, and hermaphrodites in the scale insect Icerya purchasi*
Abstract. Androdioecy (the coexistence of males and hermaphrodites) is a rare mating system for which the evolutionary dynamics are poorly understood. Here
academic.oup.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:42 PM
I've written about this reproductive system, the mix of males and hermaphrodites without pure females (called androdioecy) before, here:
academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...
academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...
I can definitely see that!
October 13, 2025 at 9:25 PM
I can definitely see that!
No worries! Even with just females you should be able to see if you have (differentiated) ZW vs something else. I'd be happy to talk more if/when you get to that point!
October 13, 2025 at 6:12 PM
No worries! Even with just females you should be able to see if you have (differentiated) ZW vs something else. I'd be happy to talk more if/when you get to that point!
That sounds a lot like the Caligidae..I'm still not over the convergent morphology haha. In terms of the genetic systems though, are they ZZ/ZW, XX/XY, etc?
October 13, 2025 at 5:43 PM
That sounds a lot like the Caligidae..I'm still not over the convergent morphology haha. In terms of the genetic systems though, are they ZZ/ZW, XX/XY, etc?
Any chance you know what the sex determination system is for them?
October 13, 2025 at 6:25 AM
Any chance you know what the sex determination system is for them?