Data from: Surviving in sympatry: paragenital divergence and sexual mimicry between a pair of traumatically inseminating plant bugs

Reproductive interactions between species can carry significant costs
(e.g., wasted time, energy, and gametes). In traumatically inseminating
insects, heterospecific mating costs may be intensified, with
indiscriminate mating and damaging genitalia leading to damage or death.
When closely related traumatically inseminating species are sympatric, we
predict selection should favor the rapid evolution of reproductive
isolation. Here we report on a cryptic species of traumatically
inseminating plant bug, Coridromius taravao, living sympatrically with its
sister species, Coridromius tahitiensis, in French Polynesia. Despite
their sister-species relationship, they exhibit striking differences in
reproductive morphology, with females of each species stabbed and
inseminated through different parts of their abdomens. Furthermore, C.
tahitiensis is sexually dimorphic in coloration and vestiture, while both
sexes of C. taravao share the C. tahitiensis male expression of these
traits. These findings support a role for (1) reproductive character
divergence and (2) interspecies sexual mimicry in limiting interspecific
mating brought about by indiscriminate male mating behavior.