Large-scale patterns in morphological diversity and species assemblages in Neotropical Triatominae (Heteroptera: Reduviidae)

Abstract

We analysed the spatial variation in morphological diversity (MDiv) and species richness (SR) for 91 species of Neotropical Triatominae to determine the ecological relationships between SR and MDiv and to explore the roles that climate, productivity, environmental heterogeneity and the presence of biomes and rivers may play in the structuring of species assemblages. For each 110 km x 110 km-cell on a grid map of America, we determined the number of species (SR) and estimated the mean Gower index (MDiv) based on 12 morphological attributes. We performed bootstrapping analyses of species assemblages to identify whether those assemblages were more similar or dissimilar in their morphology than expected by chance. We applied a multi-model selection procedure and spatial explicit analyses to account for the association of diversity-environment relationships. MDiv and SR both showed a latitudinal gradient, although each peaked at different locations and were thus not strictly spatially congruent. SR decreased with temperature variability and MDiv increased with mean temperature, suggesting a predominant role for ambient energy in determining Triatominae diversity. Species that were more similar than expected by chance co-occurred near the limits of the Triatominae distribution in association with changes in environmental variables. Environmental filtering may underlie the structuring of species assemblages near their distributional limits.

Geographic variation in body size and its relationship with environmental gradients in the Oriental Garden Lizard, Calotes versicolor

“…Thus, SEVM is a popular spatial model in applied studies (Pace et al., ). Indeed, many studies also suggested that SEVM can achieve the aim of accounting for spatial autocorrelation in ecological data (Fergnani, Ruggiero, Ceccarelli, Menu, & Rabinovich, ; Gouveia, Hortal, Cassemiro, Rangel, & Diniz‐Filho, ; McClain, Allen, Tittensor, & Rex, ; Murakami & Griffith, ; Yang et al., ). A truncation distance of 215.9 km for males and 316.9 km for females, calculated in SAM (Spatial Analysis in Macroecology), version 4.0 (Rangel, Diniz‐Filho, & Bini, ), was used to create the spatial filters.…”

An ecological overview on the factors that drives to Trypanosoma cruzi oral transmission

“…2), which also correspond to areas with the greatest diversity of species of triatomines. In the past, some of these vectors had secondary importance in the cutaneous transmission, but now they have great relevance in the oral transmission (Fergnani et al, 2013). The map of Figure 2 summarizes the most important vectors of each eco-region, as well as reservoirs, potential sources of infection and the DTUs, isolated from each outbreak of oral transmitted ChD.…”

Classification and Biogeography of Neotropical True Bugs

“…The group has been employed in macroecological studies in attempts to understand its richness and distribution patterns on the Neotropics (e.g., Rodriguero and Gorla 2004 ;Diniz-Filho et al 2013 ;Fergnani et al 2013 ). Rodriguero and Gorla ( 2004 ) examined how New World Triatominae species richness responds to latitudinal gradients and explored the relevance of geographical area and available energy.…”

“…The unique effects of these variables are quite diffi cult to disentangle because of the collinearity among variables and residual autocorrelation and may also be due to low taxonomic sampling. Fergnani et al ( 2013 ) conducted a complementary study to understand largescale spatial patterns of morphological diversity and species richness of triatomine species in terms of environmental gradients. Studying 91 species and 12 morphological attributes of Neotropical triatomine, they found the latitudinal gradient of species richness to be in agreement with previous studies (Rodriguero and Gorla 2004 ;Diniz-Filho et al 2013 ).…”

“…However, the overall correlation pattern between species richness and morphological diversity is not homogeneous throughout taxon distribution (e.g., Brazil and Argentina have regions of high species diversity, but low morphological diversity). According to Fergnani et al ( 2013 ), their's was the fi rst study where this kind of relationship was demonstrated for insects on a continental scale, demonstrating that for the Triatominae, species richness and morphological diversity cannot be considered substitutes for one another.…”