MORPHOMETRIC VARIATION AFFECTING SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM IN THE GRASSHOPPER Neopedies brunneri

ROMERO LUCIANA; ROSETTI NATALIA; REMIS MARIA ISABEL

ANNALS OF THE ENTOMOLOGYCAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOC AMER

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

0013-8746

Neopedies brunneri is a grasshopper belonging to the family Acrididae. This group of insects have usually economic importance in Argentina because of their ability to experience outbreaks, but little is known about them. Insect populations usually differ at phenotypic level, oftenly according to geographical and environmental variables, which may be good indicator of some other factors with adaptive significance (such as developmental rate; seasonal resource disposal). The aim of this paper is to report the first preliminary analysis of phenotypic variation in natural populations of N. brunneri from Central Argentina in order to study the amount of intra- and 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 (SSD) was also detected and found to be correlated to geographical and climactic variation. Moreover, geographic patterns of SSD were found, helping to clarify differential susceptibility of both sexes to environmental conditions.