Some water strider males (Microvelia longipes) have enormous back legs relative to the rest of their body, which they use to guard egg-laying sites and to fight off rival males. William Toubiana, Abderrahman Khila and colleagues from the Universite de Lyon in France report that the development of this exaggerated male sexual characteristic depends on the production of a ubiquitous growth factor, BMP11, also found in humans and mice. The study was published on May 11, 2021 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.
Click here for original story, Same gene drives male water striders’ long legs and the inclination to use them as weapons
Source: Phys.org