Interspecies sexual conflict: Evidence of interspecies sexual mimicry in a sympatric pair of traumatically inseminating insects

Sexual conflict is widely accepted as a significant evolutionary driver, which can fuel coevolutionary arms races between the sexes and may even lead to speciation. In the traumatically inseminating plant bug genus Coridromius, mating is aggressive and fast, with males pouncing on unsuspecting females, and females thrashing, kicking and jumping in an effort to dislodge their would-be suitors. Here I report the discovery of two sister species of Coridromius living sympatrically on the same host plants in Tahiti, and present evidence of interspecies sexual mimicry, thought to be driven by reproductive interference.