Morphospecies and taxonomic species comparison for Hymenoptera
1Ecology, Conservation and Biodiversity Research Group, Department of Botany, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
2Auckland Museum, Auckland Domain, Private Bag 92018, Auckland, New Zealand
3Ecology, Conservation and Biodiversity Research Group, Department of Zoology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
4Current address: Disease and Vector Research Group, Institute of Natural Sciences, Massey University, Private Bag 102904, North Shore MSC, Auckland, New Zealand
Abstract
The use of morphospecies as surrogates for taxonomic species has been proposed as an alternative to overcome the identification difficulties associated with many invertebrate studies, such as biodiversity surveys. Hymenoptera specimens were collected by beating and pitfall traps, and were separated into morphospecies by a non-specialist with no prior training, and later identified by an expert taxonomist. The number of Hymenoptera morphospecies and taxonomic species was 37 and 42, respectively, representing an underestimation error of 12%. Different families presented varying levels of difficulty, and although the species estimation provided by the use of morphospecies initially appeared to have a relatively minor error rate, this was actually an artefact. Splitting and lumping errors balanced each other out, wrongly suggesting that morphospecies were reasonable surrogates for taxonomic species in the Hymenoptera. The use of morphospecies should be adopted only for selected target groups, which have been assessed as reliable surrogates for taxonomic species beforehand, and some prior training to the nonspecialist is likely to be of primary importance.
Keywords: parataxonomist, biodiversity, recognizable taxonomic units, Hymenoptera
Correspondence:
a*derraik@gmail.com,
bjearly@aucklandmuseum.com,
cgerry.closs@stonebow.otago.ac.nz,
dkath.dickinson@botany.otago.ac.nz, *Corresponding author
Associate Editor: Eugene Hall was editor of this paper.
Received: 14 December 2008 | Accepted: 11 November 2009 | Published: 13 July 2010
Copyright: This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed.
ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 10, Number 108
Derraik JGB, Early JW, Closs GP, Dickinson KJM. 2010. Morphospecies and taxonomic species comparison for Hymenoptera. Journal of Insect Science 10:108, available online: insectscience.org/10.108