| Four Neotropical tiger beetle species, three from the genus Megacephala and one from the genus Oxycheila, currently assigned to the tribe Megacephalini were examined cytogenetically. All three Megacephala species showed simple sex chromosome systems of the X0/XX type but different numbers of autosomal pairs (15 in M. cruciata, 14 in M. sobrina and 12 in M. rutilans), while Oxycheila tristis was inferred to have a multiple sex chromosome system with four X chromosomes (2n = 24 + X1X2X3X4Y/X1X1X2X2X3X3X4X4). Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using a PCR-amplified 18S rDNA fragment as a probe revealed the presence of rDNA clusters located exclusively on the autosomes in all the Megacephala species (five clusters in M. cruciata, eight in M. sobrina and... |
