CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The Phymatinae Laporte subfamily includes a peculiar group of reduvids commonly called ?ambush bugs? by the way they capture their preys. They are cryptic species that stand on herbs and flowers waiting for insects that come to feed. Some species show strong sexual dimorphism and unusual reproductive behaviors. The taxonomy of the group is complex, 13 species are polytypical, many polymorphic and also widely distributed. The species delimitation is restricted to a few morphologic and coloring characters, the descriptions usually have been made on the basis a few specimens without considering the intraespecific variability. Phymata Latreille, 1802 includes about 108 species that are grouped in four subgenera of mainly Nearctic and Neotropical distribution, the subgenus Phymata is the most diverse with 103 species. Phymata (P.) chilensis Handlirsch includes six subspecies from southern South America, most of them from Argentina. These subspecies were described on the basis of differences in the shape and development of the lateral angles of the pronotum, studying a few specimens with particular distributions, that after analyzing many specimens, overlapped. The objective of this work is to review the identity of the subspecies of Phymata (P.) chilensis. We comparatively studied the morphology of the shape and height of lateral angles of pronotum (measurements, angles and proportions); the male genitalia and the distributional patterns; these variables were analyzed by multivariate statistical analysis techniques. In order to reinforced our results, we proposed to apply a geometric morphometry analysis using MorphoJ software, and the Niche Distributional Modelling.

enviar mensaje