Naupactini is a tribe of Neotropical broad‐nosed weevils highly diverse in South America. This group includes several parthenogenetic species, some of them harmful for agriculture and invasive around the world. Although some hypotheses based on polyploidy and hybridization have been proposed to explain the origin of parthenogenesis in weevils, the infection with the bacterium Wolbachia pipientis may be involved in the origin of parthenogenetic reproduction of some species. In this contribution, we studied the role of Wolbachia in the reproductive biology of Pantomorus postfasciatus Hustache (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) through a curing experiment using tetracycline. This weevil has a mixed mode of reproduction including sexual and parthenogenetic populations. Exposure to an antibiotic did not affect fecundity, but did reduce egg hatching in comparison with untreated individuals. Consequently, we inferred that Wolbachia most probably takes part in the reproduction of P. postfasciatus, either by exerting nutritive functions in oogenesis necessary for egg hatching, or by induction of thelytokous parthenogenesis. Although infection was not totally cured, Wolbachia load was significantly lower in treated than in control females. Thereby, we hypothesize that a minimum threshold density of Wolbachia is required for weevil reproduction. We conclude that all analyses support a role of Wolbachia in P. postfasciatus reproduction.

中文翻译：

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卵处理对孤雌象鼻虫中沃尔巴赫菌密度的依赖性

鹦鹉螺是南美新近热带广泛分布的象鼻部落。这一类包括几种孤雌生殖物种，其中一些对农业有害并在世界范围内具有入侵性。尽管已经提出了一些基于多倍体和杂交的假说来解释象鼻虫孤雌生殖的起源，但细菌Wolbachia pipientis的感染可能与某些物种孤雌生殖的起源有关。在这项贡献中，我们研究了沃尔巴克氏菌在腹足Pan的生殖生物学中的作用。胡须（鞘翅目：Curculionidae）通过使用四环素的固化实验来完成。这种象鼻虫具有包括性和孤雌生殖种群在内的混合繁殖方式。与未经治疗的个体相比，接触抗生素不会影响繁殖力，但确实减少了卵孵化。因此，我们推断沃尔巴赫氏菌很可能参与了P的繁殖。筋膜后，通过在卵孵化所必需的卵子发生中发挥营养功能，或通过诱导单壁单性生殖。尽管感染不能完全治愈，但接受治疗的沃尔巴氏菌感染量明显低于对照组女性。因此，我们假设沃尔巴克氏菌的最小阈值密度象鼻繁殖是必需的。我们得出的结论是，所有分析都支持Wolbachia在P中的作用。筋膜后生殖。