Larviform female is a biological phenomenon occurring in some insect species, where the females in the adult stage of metamorphosis resemble the

larvae A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. Th ...

to various degrees, while the male appears more morphologically adult (as

imago In biology, the imago (Latin for "image") is the last stage an insect attains during its metamorphosis, its process of growth and development; it is also called the imaginal stage, the stage in which the insect attains maturity. It follows the fi ...

es). The resemblance may mean the larviform female has the same coloring as the larvae and/or similar body plans, and may be the result of the female arresting development at earlier stages of

ecdysis Ecdysis is the moulting of the cuticle in many invertebrates of the clade Ecdysozoa. Since the cuticle of these animals typically forms a largely inelastic exoskeleton, it is shed during growth and a new, larger covering is formed. The remnants ...

than males. The female may not pupate at all, as in ''

Xenos vesparum Xenos vesparum is a parasitic insect species of the order Strepsiptera that are endoparasites of paper wasps in the genus Polistes (most commonly '' Polistes dominula)'' that was first described in 1793. Like other members of this family, ''X. v ...

''. Erezyilmaz, D.F., Hayward, A., Huang, Y., Paps, J., Acs, Z., Delgado, J.A., Collantes, F., and Kathirithamby, J. (2014) 'Expression of the pupal determinant broad during metamorphic and neotenic development of the strepsipteran ''Xenos vesparum'' Rossi', PLoS ONE, 9(4), available: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A375582897/HRCA?u=crepuq_bishop&sid=HRCA&xid=8b5d44a4 ccessed 30 Nov 2020 Typically, the female is

wingless The Wnt signaling pathways are a group of signal transduction pathways which begin with proteins that pass signals into a cell through cell surface receptors. The name Wnt is a portmanteau created from the names Wingless and Int-1. Wnt signaling p ...

and generally larger than the male. Larviform females still reach

sexual maturity Sexual maturity is the capability of an organism to reproduce. In humans it might be considered synonymous with adulthood, but here puberty is the name for the process of biological sexual maturation, while adulthood is based on cultural definitio ...

. Larviform females occur in several insect groups, including most

Strepsiptera The Strepsiptera are an order of insects with eleven extant families that include about 600 described species. They are endoparasites in other insects, such as bees, wasps, leafhoppers, silverfish, and cockroaches. Females of most species ne ...

and Bagworm moths, many elateroid beetles (e.g.,

Lampyridae The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

), and some gall midges. Larviform females are an area of interest in the study of the evolution of insect metamorphosis. Since these females have lower ability to disperse, this may help explain high

endemism Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

in some groups, such as

fireflies.

See Also

References

See also