Distinguishing between Leptidea sinapis and L. reali (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) using a morphometric approach: impact of measurement error on the discriminative characters
2008; Q15088586; Volume: 1819; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.11646/zootaxa.1819.1.3
ISSN1175-5334
Autores Tópico(s)Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
ResumoA morphometric approach was used to test the possibility of discriminating between L. sinapis and L. reali by taking into account some new genitalic characters in addition to those used in previous surveys. Principal component analysis, performed on the size-and-shape data sets and on the size-adjusted data sets, has allowed two completely separate morphotypes to be detected, both in males and in females. Discriminant analysis has confirmed the separation of previously detected morphotypes and has correctly classified 100% of the specimens in both sexes with six discriminative characters being identified in males and two in females. However, some of these discriminative characters were not considered reliable enough because of the high associated measurement error and the scarce discriminative power. Reliable discriminative characters were: vinculum (≈ valve) width, length of phallus (≈ aedoeagus ≈ aedeagus), saccus and uncus in males and ductus bursae length in females. The main topics discussed are: a comparison of the discriminative characters with previous studies, the sources of measurement error and the devices used to reduce it, as well as the between and within-species variability of the characters.
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