Intra and Inter-population morphological variation of shape and size of the Chilean magnificent beetle, Ceroglossus chilensis in the Baker River Basin, Chilean Patagonia
1 Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción,
Concepción, Casilla: 160-C - 4070386, Chile
2 Instituto de Alta Investigación, Universidad de Tarapacá, Casilla 7-D Arica Chile
3 Departamento de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Facultad de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Andrés Bello, República 470, Santiago, Chile
Abstract
The alteration of habitat generates different degrees of stress in insects. It has been suggested that the degrees of phenotypic disturbances reflect the ability of an individual to overcome the effects of stress. The Baker River Basin in the Aysén Region, Chilean Patagonia has a very fragmented landscape, due to the destruction of the native forest and the use of land for agriculture and animal husbandry. This alteration should generate different degrees of disturbances in the insect communities, whose effects may be quantified by geometric morphometric tools. We analyzed morphological differences in 244 males and 133 females of the the Chilean magnificent beetle, Ceroglossus chilensis (Eschscholtz) (Coleoptera: Carabidae) collected in January, 2007, in mixed forests of Nothofagus dombeyi Mirbel ( Ørsted) (Fagales: Nothofagaceae) and N. nitida Hofmus and in Second-growth forest of N. pumilio (Poepp. & Endl.) Krasser. Males were generally wider in the pronotum, while females had wider abdominal sternites. Although there were significant differences in shape and size between mature forests and second-growth forest, these were less significant among the sites within each type of vegetal formation. Individuals had more shape variations in the mature forest. We suggest that differences in shape are due at least in part to the isolation of the habitat. The differences found between sexes raises the question of how morphological variations and sexual dimorphism may be affected spatially by natural selection.
Keywords: geometric morphometric, habitat fragmentation, isolation, interpopulation, mature forest, Second-growth forest, sexual dimorphism
Abbreviations: F, mature forest; S, second-growth forest
Correspondence:
a* hugobenitez@udec.cl,
b rcbriones@gmail.com,
c vijerez@udec.cl, *Corresponding author
Editor: Harold Greeney was editor of this paper.
Received: 24 October 2010 | Accepted: 19 May 2011 | Published: 26 July 2011
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 11, Number 94
Benítez HA, Briones R, Jerez V. 2011. Intra and Inter-population morphological variation of shape and size of the Chilean magnificent beetle, Ceroglossus chilensis in the Baker River Basin, Chilean Patagonia. Journal of Insect Science 11:94 available online: insectscience.org/11.94
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