Comparative Morphometric Adaptation of the Housefly and the Face Fly in the United States

Morphometric studies in inbred and hybrid house mice. Heterosis, homeostasis and heritability of size and shape

“…Spearman's correlation of the heritability (from inbreds) and heterosis values here was not significant, but differences among the size and shape characters are greater than are those among the osteometric characters themselves. Bryant & Turner (1978) have put forth the interesting suggestion that shape variables may be more subject to (non-additive) epistatic influences. Unfortunately, epistatic effects could not be assessed with the present design, but differences in their contributions between the SIZE and SHAPE characters, even if present, probably are small in comparison to those generated by additive genetic effects.…”

Morphological Variation in the Horsehoe Crab Limulus polyphemus

“…Johnston and Selander (1971, Table 6) report coefficients of variation ranging from 1.74 to 9.75 for 12 skeletal characters, and from 1.88 to 5.96 (Selander and Johnston, 1967, Table 8) for measures of body size in the house sparrow Passer domesticus, now farnous for its rapid geographic differentiation in North and South America (see Johnston, 1973, and references therein). In the invertebrates, Bryant (1977), and Bryant and Turner (1978), report coefficients ranging from 5.78 to 12.06 for 14 characters in houseflies from North America and from 4.50 to 8.34 for the face fly. Alpatov (1929) in a study of linear mea-surements of tongues and wings on honey bees, reports coefficients of variation well below the range of those reported here.…”

“…For the house sparrow, in studies encompassing North America, South America, Europe, and "England and Germany," among-locality percentages ranging from 5.3 to 40.8 were reported for five body dimensions in males and females (Johnston and Selander, 1973, Table 1). For North American houseflies and face flies, Bryant (1977, Table 2) and Bryant and Turner (1978 , Table 1) report among-locality percentages of from 3.64 to 33.91 for 14 morphological measurements. For measurements of gall-forming aphids in the genus Pemphigus, among-locality variance components are usually less than half of the total variance (Sokal et al, 1980;Sokal and Riska, unpubl.).…”

Geographic Variation in House Fly Size: Adaptation or Larval Crowding?

“…To study the effects oflarval density on size, larvae were raised to adults at six different densities. Gravid females were collected at a pork farm, placed The similarities in variance components in our study and those of Bryant (1977) and Bryant and Turner (1978) suggest that their geographic variances were confounded by seasonal effects. Ignoring The first and second principal components (Table 1) accounted for 92% of the total variance among flies.…”

“…Morphometric analysis of geographic variation in species is often used to study and reveal modes of adaptation (e.g., Drosophila robusta [Stalker and Carson, 1947]; Pemphigus populi-transversus [Sokal et aI., 1971]; Culicoides spp, [Atchley, 1971]). To study geographic adaptation in house flies (Musca domestica L.), Bryant (1977) and Bryant and Turner (1978) measured 14 morphometric characters in flies from "isolated" (widely separated) locations throughout the United States. Principal component analysis on correlations among characters showed that body size was the major source of variation among flies and that characters developed isogonically (character size ratios remained constant in small and large flies).…”