Khila: will experimental evolution select for longer legged males? Surprisingly, males selected for high competition have more variation in leg size than controls. #EED2026
Explanation: exagerated legs are negative for the females. Thus selection on females countracts selection on males.

Khila: if large long legged males have high success, why is their variation in the population? Survival cost of exagerated trait? No relation to resistance to starvation, other tests… no costs have been found so far. #EED2026

Khila: RNA-seq -> exagerated legs are enriched in sex-biased genes. BMP11 RNAi removes most of the exagerated legs. #EED2026
Closely related species M. pulchella without exagerated lengths: almost no fighting among males. BMP11 RNAi M. longipes stop fighting!

Khila is unique in how he goes from systematics in the field, to behavior observations and experiments, to uncovering the key developmental genes involved. Beauty of #EvoDevo #EED2026

Khila: the large legs are important for male-male fights to secure small floating objects for females to lay eggs. Long legged males fertilize more eggs, even more so when competition for floating objects is stronger. #EED2026

Khila #EED2026: high variabiity in size between males in waterstrider M. longipes. Example of exagerated sexually selected trait. Difference is so large that the big/long legged and small/short legged males were originally classified as distinct species. They live in small temporary rain puddles in the tropics.

Khila: strong phenotypic differences between males and females, due to sexual conflict: specialised antenna in males to grip females, controlled by Dll. #EED2026
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1217258

Khila: How did this jumping behavior evolve? New interaction between conserved development genes Ubx and gilt. #EED2026
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9153

Khila: ancestral locomotion state of water striders is walking on water, derived and key for radiation, rowing. The rowers are more efficient on water but cannot move to land. They have to escape fishes without going to land: they jump high very fast. #EED2026