INVESTIGADORES
MATTONI Camilo Ivan
artículos
Título:
Sperm packages morphology in scorpions and its relation to phylogeny
Autor/es:
VRECH, D.E.; PERETTI, A.V.; MATTONI, C.I.
Revista:
ZOOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY
Editorial:
WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC
Referencias:
Lugar: Londres; Año: 2011 vol. 161 p. 463 - 483
ISSN:
0024-4082
Resumen:
Sperm
packages are widespread in the order Scorpiones, but absent in the
family Buthidae. The morphology of sperm packages is diverse and
apparently has phylogenetic information. The objective of this work
is to show diversity of sperm packages and to provide a quantitative
basis for using sperm packages' morphology as a taxonomic character.
For this, we conducted a morphological analysis and comparison of the
different sperm packages of species of the family Bothriuridae. The
seminal content from males of species of Bothriuridae was studied.
Specimens from Iuridae, Buthidae, Euscorpiidae, Liochelidae,
Scorpionidae, Vaejovidae, Chaerilidae and Chactidae were used for
comparison. Digital images of sperm packages were measured and
statistically analyzed based on the following variables: total
length, head width, head-body angle, total area and head length.
Pairs
of variables were also contrasted, and all the variables were
correlated with the current phylogenetic hypothesis for Bothriuridae.
High
morphological diversity and variability in measures was observed. In
general, measurements were similar inside each genus, but differed
between genera. Cane-like sperm packages are very common in species
of the family Bothriuridae. Species from
Bothriurus show
a wide range of sperm packages shapes, being some of them shared with
Timogenes
and Vachonia
species, supporting the idea of non-monophyly of the genus. Many
species showed sperm packages dimorphism inside a single male. Some
of the analyzed features fit well with the phylogenetic hypothesis in
Bothriuridae, and the general package shape shows high correlation
with scorpion phylogeny in other families. Bent and round packages
are the most common between the different families. Sperm packages
are not developed in Chaerilidae, as in Buthidae. This is the first
morphological and comparative analysis of sperm packages in
scorpions, and show a much bigger diversity in this trait that the
currently known. Our results reinforce the idea that the study of
morphology of sperm packages would contribute characters for scorpion
phylogeny at different levels.