Geometric morphometric analysis describing sexual dimorphism in housefly, Musca domestica Linn. (Diptera: Muscidae)

Abstract

Houseflies (Musca domestica) (Diptera: Muscidae) are medically important insect species because they serve as vectors of pathogens. The study generally described the sexual dimorphism of M. domestica based on their wing size and wing shape. This study examined 25 males and 25 females of F1 offspring from wild-caught M. domestica parents. The wings were digitized and 17 landmarks were obtained, scaled, translated, and rotated in General Procrustes Analysis. The wing size (centroid size) of male M. domestica species was significantly larger compared to females (t = - 2.38, df = 48, p = 0.0200). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Relative Warp Analysis (RWA) revealed that 29.72% of shape variation from the original data was attributed to a narrow wing shape, and 14.60% toa broad wing shape. Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA) successfully distinguished female and male species based on wing shape, in which males have narrower wings compared to females, indicating the occurrence of sexual dimorphism in wings.

Keywords

• evolution
• landmarks
• morphology
• philippines
• wing shape