Morphological variability in wing size and wing shape among species Aphidius absinthi Marshall, A. Rosae haliday and A. Urticae Haliday (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae)

Abstract

In this paper, we applied traditional and geometric morphometric methods to analyze variability in wing size and wing shape among species Aphidius absinthi Marshall, A. rosae Haliday and A. urticae Haliday. These taxa represent closely related species with different biological and ecological characters. For the morphometric analyses, we used a sample of 52 female specimens that were collected during the period 2009-2013, on different localities in Serbia. Traditional morphometric analyses revealed statistical significance in stigma shape discrimination of analysed taxa. Our geometric morphometric analyses also confirmed that major contribution to the wing shape variation had the changes in length of the radial sector and stigma shape. Combining the traditional and geometric morphometric analyses, we confirmed the validity of the wing characters previously used in taxonomic studies of the genus Aphidius.

Keywords

• Aphidius absinthi
• A. rosae
• A. urticae
• geometric morphometry