Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) are organic compounds found on the cuticles of all insects which can act as close‐contact pheromones, while also providing a hydrophobic barrier to water loss. Given their widespread importance in sexual behaviour and survival, CHCs have likely contributed heavily to the adaptation and speciation of insects. Despite this, the patterns and mechanisms of their diversification have been studied in very few taxa. Here, we perform the first study of CHC diversification in blowflies, focussing on wild populations of the ecologically diverse genus Chrysomya. We convert CHC profiles into qualitative and quantitative traits and assess their inter‐ and intra‐specific variation across 10 species. We also construct a global phylogeny of Chrysomya, onto which CHCs were mapped to explore the patterns of their diversification. For the first time, we demonstrate that blowflies express an exceptional diversity of CHCs, which have diversified in a nonphylogenetic and punctuated manner, are species‐specific and sexually dimorphic. It is likely that both ecological and sexual selection have shaped these patterns of CHC diversification, and our study now provides a comprehensive framework for testing such hypotheses.

中文翻译：

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苍蝇两性异形表皮碳氢化合物的进化（双翅目：Calliphoridae）

表皮碳氢化合物 (CHC) 是在所有昆虫的表皮上发现的有机化合物，可作为密切接触的信息素，同时还提供疏水屏障以防止水分流失。鉴于它们在性行为和生存中的广泛重要性，CHC 可能对昆虫的适应和物种形成做出了重大贡献。尽管如此，在很少的分类群中研究了它们多样化的模式和机制。在这里，我们对绿头苍蝇的 CHC 多样化进行了首次研究，重点是生态多样化的金蝇属的野生种群。我们将 CHC 谱转换为定性和定量性状，并评估它们在 10 个物种中的种间和种内变异。我们还构建了 Chrysomya 的全球系统发育，将 CHC 映射到其上以探索其多样化模式。我们第一次证明，苍蝇表达了异常多样性的 CHC，这些 CHC 以非系统发育和间断的方式多样化，具有物种特异性和性别二态性。生态选择和性选择很可能塑造了 CHC 多样化的这些模式，我们的研究现在提供了一个全面的框架来测试这些假设。