Morphometric variation affecting sexual size dimorphism in Neopedis brunneri (Orthoptera: Acrididae)

LUCIANA ROMERO; NATALIA ROSETTI; MARIA ISABEL REMIS

ANNALS OF THE ENTOMOLOGYCAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOC AMER

Lugar: Lanham; Año: 2014 vol. 107 p. 257 - 263

0013-8746

Neopedies brunneri (Giglio-Tos, 1894) is a grasshopper belonging to the family Acrididae. This group of insects usually has economic importance in Argentina because of their ability to experience outbreaks, but little is known about them. Insect populations usually differ at the phenotypic level, often according to geographical and environmental variables, which may be a good indicator of some other factors with adaptive signiÞcance (such as developmental rate, seasonal resource disposal). The aim of this article is to report the Þrst preliminary analysis of phenotypic variation in natural populations of N. brunneri from central Argentina to study the amount of intraand interpopulation variation in morphometric traits and their probable association with geographic and climatic variables. We found the existence of morphometrical differences among populations and a pattern of geographical variation, with males and females from eastern populations being bigger than the ones from the west. Sexual size dimorphism was also detected and found to be correlated to geographical and climactic variation. Moreover, geographic patterns of sexual size dimorphism were determined, helping to clarify differential susceptibility of both sexes to environmental conditions.