Morphometric differentiation of Tetramesa leucospae Zerova & Madjdzadeh, 2005, populations associated with two geographically isolated grass species in Iran

Madjdzadeh, Seyed, Dawah, Hassan and Bruford, Michael William ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6357-6080 2011. Morphometric differentiation of Tetramesa leucospae Zerova & Madjdzadeh, 2005, populations associated with two geographically isolated grass species in Iran. Zoology in the Middle East 52 , pp. 79-88.

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Abstract

Discriminant function and cluster analyses were performed on 19 morphometric variables of the head, thorax, propodeum, wing, antenna and leg to determine whether individuals of Tetramesa sp. are distinguishable from the morphologically similar Tetramesa leucospae Zerova & Madjdzadeh, 2005. The former was reared from the grass Leucopoa pseudosclerophylla (Krivot.), an endemic species in the alpine region of southern Iran, and the latter from Festuca sclerophylla (Boiss. Ex Bisch.) that is found on stony slopes in northern Iran. Our results showed significant differences between individuals of Tetramesa reared from these two geographically isolated grasses. A stepwise discriminant function analysis selected six morphological characters (distance between two top ocelli, length of compound eye, breadth of thorax, width of propodeal foramen, stigmal vein and tarsal segment 2 of hind leg) from which two characters (width of propodeal foramen and distance between two top ocelli) provided the greatest discrimination between these geographically isolated populations of Tetramesa. 84% of individuals were reclassified correctly into their original populations using these characters. A dendrogram of the cluster analysis based on data of squared Euclidean distances between Tetramesa showed two main branches, one that combined Tetramesa reared from L. pseudosclerophylla and the other that represented the individuals reared from F. sclerophylla. This analysis clearly implies that each host-associated population is restricted to one grass species. We therefore concluded that the two Tetramesa populations represent two host-adapted forms and we consider that they are an example of superficially cryptic allopatric speciation in insects.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Biosciences Sustainable Places Research Institute (PLACES)
Subjects:	Q Science > Q Science (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	morphometrics; hymenoptera; eurytomidae; leucopoa; festuca; poaceae; host-adapted variation; Iran
Publisher:	Kasparek Verlag
ISSN:	0939-7140
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2024 02:49
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/27848

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