Abstracts - Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

132 Evolutionary Biology PostersP EB.16 - DEDevelopment of forensically relevant species of Diptera (Insecta) under controlledvariable temperature conditionsSenta Niederegger 1 , Jana Pastuschek 1 , Rolf Beutel 2 , Gita Mall 2Institut für Rechtsmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Jena; 2 Institut für Spezielle Zoologie und Evolutionsbiologiemit Phyletischem Museum, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität JenaStudies on the development of dipterans were carried out for several decades in a forensic context,aiming at a more reliable determination of the post mortem interval. According to a Canadian studyon crop management the development depends on the number of accumulated degree days or degreehours respectively and is constant for every species. Consequently a characteristic degree day ordegree hour number can be assigned to individual fly species. The age of the maggots can therewithbe calculated based on the already spent degree days or degree hours. This approach implies that thedevelopment rate is the same whether the maggots are reared under a constant temperature of e.g.15°C or under variable temperatures with an average of 15°C. This hypothesis was tested for the firsttime using a climate chamber. Individual egg batches were studied within four different experimentalsetups and the development rate of the maggots documented and compared.P EB.17 - ENMHC spreading and its consequences on social structure of European rabbitsPhilipp RauschTierphysiologie, Universität BayreuthGenes of the high polymorphic MHC play a crucial role in immune recognition of pathogens andparasites. Natural and sexual selection on these genes should influence their distribution in a population.In this work, the MHC II- DRB exon 2 of Oryctolagus cuniculus L. and its effects on the socialstructure of this species were examined. For this aim all adult individuals from a seminatural populationwere genotyped for MHC II DRB Exon 2. Analyses of the allel- spreading in the populationshowed a significant deviation from the Hardy- Weinberg- equilibrium to an excess of homozygotes.This contradicts heterozygote advantage and MHC dependent disassortative mating- strategies. Furthermore,one allele was much more present in the population than others, what may mediate a selectiveadvantage for carriers of this allele. In the mating groups and over the whole population was anincrease of homozygosity. So there seems to be no selective advantage of heterozygous individuals.Mating- groups showed a higher polymorphism of the MHC- locus than measured for the wholepopulation, at this, genetic distances to females of all to the group belonging males overcome thedistances of dominant group males. Nevertheless the distance between males and females of a groupis greater than expected by chance, which could be an effect of MHC dependent dispersal. That givesthe possibility, that dominant males are not the matter for grouping females, but the whole malesbelonging to the mating-groups.