Abstract

SOTO-VIVAS, Ana; LIRIA, Jonathan  and  LUNA, Efraín de. Geometric morphometrics and phylogeny in Rhodniini (Hemiptera, Reduviidae) of Venezuela. Acta Zool. Mex [online]. 2011, vol.27, n.1, pp.87-102. ISSN 2448-8445.

Tribe Rhodniini includes Rhodnius Stål and Psammolestes Bergroth. Enzymatic and molecular evidence suggest the tribe is monophyletic. Most species are wild, living in palms and bird nests. Traditionally both genera were considered related; nevertheless, molecular studies don't support the Rhodnius monophyly. The goal was to phylogenetically analyze morphometric variation in wing architecture in support of Rhodniini taxonomy and systematics. We photographed 524 wings of five representatives of Rhodniini: Psammolestes arthuri (Pinto) (n = 89), Rhodnius pictipes Stål (n = 21), R. robustus Larrousse (n = 24), R. prolixus Stål (n = 16), and R. neivai Lent (n = 22). As outgroups we studied four representatives of Triatomini: Eratyrus mucronatus Stål (n = 15), Panstrongylus rufotuberculatus (Champion) (n = 45), P. geniculatus (Latreille) (n = 183), and Triatoma maculata (Erichson) (n = 109). Landmark coordinate (x, y) configurations were registered and aligned by Generalized Procrustes Analysis. Covariance Analyses were implemented with proportions of re-classified groups and MANO VA. Then, wing shape variables (confidence intervals from relative warps) and centroid size were cladistically analysed. Statistical analyses of variance found not significant differences in wing isometric size (Kruskal-Wallis) among P. arthuri-R. neivai-R. pictipes; R. robustus-R. prolixus-T. maculata and between P. rufotuberculatus-P. geniculatus. The a posteriori re-classification was perfect in E. mucrunatus 100% and R. pictipes, followed by T. maculata 96%, R. neivai 95%, P arthuri 93.2%; R. prolixus 87.5%, P. geniculatus 87.4%, P. rufotuberculatus 84.4%, and R. robustus 76%. Cladistic analyses under parsimony selected two most parsimonious trees (L=4.461 IC=0.973 and IR=0.979), where the strict consensus showed a monophyletic group with Panstrongylus (rufotuberculatus + geniculatus) and Triatoma + Rhodniini (Rhodinus + Psammolestes), but internally it shows the paraphyly of Rhodnius regarding Psammolestes. The congruence between these results and previous molecular analyses in Rhodniini, reveal the phylogenetic information of our morphometric characters as support to systematic studies, allowing the combination of geometric morphometrics and phylogenetic methods for the first time in this group.

Keywords : Triatominae; Rhodnius; Psammolestes; geometric morphometrics; systematics; cladistic analyses.