Wing morphometrics as a possible tool for the diagnosis of the Ceratitis fasciventris, C. anonae, C. rosa complex (Diptera, Tephritidae)

By

Cann, Joannes van
Virgilio, Massimiliano
Jordaens, Kurt
De Meyer, Marc

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2015

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

540

Pages

489-506

Subjects

Ceratitis anonae , Ceratitis fasciventris , Ceratitis rosa , cryptic species , fruit flies , integrative taxonomy , Posterior Group Membership Probability , wing morphometrics

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.540.9724

 

Abstract

Previous attempts to resolve the Ceratitis FAR complex (C. fasciventris, C. anonae, C. rosa, Diptera, Tephritidae) showed contrasting results and revealed the occurrence of five microsatellite genotypic clusters (A, F1, F2, R1, R2). In this paper we explore the potential of wing morphometrics for the diagnosis of FAR morphospecies and genotypic clusters. We considered a set of 227 specimens previously morphologically identified and genotyped at 16 microsatellite loci. Seventeen wing landmarks and 6 wing band areas were used for morphometric analyses. Permutational multivariate analysis of variance detected significant differences both across morphospecies and genotypic clusters (for both males and females). Unconstrained and constrained ordinations did not properly resolve groups corresponding to morphospecies or genotypic clusters. However, posterior group membership probabilities (PGMPs) of the Discriminant Analysis of Principal Components (DAPC) allowed the consistent identification of a relevant proportion of specimens (but with performances differing across morphospecies and genotypic clusters). This study suggests that wing morphometrics and PGMPs might represent a possible tool for the diagnosis of species within the FAR complex. Here, we propose a tentative diagnostic method and provide a first reference library of morphometric measures that might be used for the identification of additional and unidentified FAR specimens.