Morphostructural investigation of the female reproductive system and molecular evidence for Wolbachia in Balclutha brevis Lindberg 1954 (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae)

Balclutha brevis Lindberg 1954 (Homoptera, Cicadellidae) is an allochthonous species that is rapidlyspreading in Sicily and in mainland Europe due to the wide spread of its host plant and therefore couldalso compete with populations of native species. Considering these ecological implications, based on thelacking ultrastructural data about the reproductive systems of the Auchenorrhyncha and since previousinvestigations on the male reproductive system of B. brevis have shown some interesting features, wecarried out morphostructural investigations on the female reproductive system of this alien leafhopper.Moreover, given the high interest in literature on Wolbachia entomoparasite and based on our previousstudies, we provided a contribution to further investigations in applied sciences. For this aim we per-formed a molecular analysis on males and females of B. brevis to detect the possible presence of strainsof the bacterium known to alter host reproductive biology.The female reproductive system has a morphological organization comparable to the general anatom-ical features of most of the Auchenorrhyncha species; however, comparing our data with the literature,some considerations are discussed. As for the histological and ultrastructural investigations, our resultsshow a secretory activity of the various examined structures. In the spermatheca of B. brevis, in particular,the secretory activity is more marked in the sac-shaped tract, where histochemical investigations showeda lipid component of the secretion; possible origin of this component is discussed. Moreover, mainly freespermatozoa are found in the sac-shaped tract of the spermatheca and in the common oviduct. As forthe latter, an interesting findings is the lack of cuticular intima on the epithelial surface of the commonoviduct; furthermore, the observed features and the literature in this regards led us to review the signifi-cance of the structure called as spermatheca. The molecular screening study (PCR) with three Wolbachiaspecific genes (16 SrRNA, ftsZ,wsp) strongly supports Wolbachia infections in both males and females ofthe host species. This is the first study demonstrating the presence of Wolbachia in Balclutha genus, thoughno morphostructural alteration commonly related to the presence of the bacterium has been found in allthe examined specimens.