Insect morphometry is reproducible under average investigation standards

Csősz, Sándor; Seifert, Bernhard; Mikó, István; Boudinot, Brendon E.; Borowiec, Marek L.; Fisher, Brian L.; Prebus, Matthew; Puniamoorthy, Jayanthi; Rakotonirina, Jean-Claude; Rasoamanana, Nicole; Schultz, R. Jack; Trietsch, Carolyn; Ulmer, Jonah M.; Elek, Zoltán

doi:10.1002/ece3.7075

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(71 reference statements)

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“…Our data quality evaluations showed negligible differences when different people place landmarks, which confirms previous investigations of this aspect in other studies [ 54 , 55 ]. We could also demonstrate that the differences between forewing drawings from the literature and photographs of flattened wings were minor, at least if the former were obtained in a standardised fashion similar to the one used by Townes [ 36 – 38 , 46 ].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Classifying fossil Darwin wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) with geometric morphometrics of fore wings

et al. 2022

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Linking fossil species to the extant diversity is often a difficult task, and the correct interpretation of character evidence is crucial for assessing their taxonomic placement. Here, we make use of geometric morphometrics of fore wings to help classify five fossil Darwin wasps from the Early Eocene Fur Formation in Denmark into subfamilies and often tribes. We compile a reference dataset with 342 fore wings of nine extant subfamilies and nine relevant fossil species. Since geometric morphometrics was mostly ignored in the past in Darwin wasp classification, the dataset is first used to examine differences and similarities in wing venation among subfamilies. In a next step, we used the reference dataset to inform the classification of the fossil species, which resulted in the description of one new genus and five new species, Crusopimpla weltii sp. nov., Ebriosa flava gen. et sp. nov., Entypoma? duergari sp. nov., Lathrolestes? zlatorog sp. nov., and Triclistus bibori sp. nov., in four different subfamilies. Carefully assessing data quality, we show that the fore wing venation of fossil Darwin wasps is surprisingly suitable to assign them to a subfamily or even lower taxonomic level, especially when used in conjunction with characters from other parts of the body to narrow down a candidate set of potential subfamilies and tribes. Our results not only demonstrate a fast and useful approach to inform fossil classification but provide a basis for future investigations into evolutionary changes in fore wings of ichneumonids. The high informativeness of wing venation for classification furthermore could be harvested for phylogenetic analyses, which are otherwise often hampered by homoplasy in this parasitoid wasp family.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Classifying fossil Darwin wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) with geometric morphometrics of fore wings

et al. 2022

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“…Our preliminary results were promising: the software measurements showed exceptionally high agreement with the otherwise highly precise microscopic measurements. In many cases, researchers, including authors of the present paper, would have felt satisfied that the methods were similar and stopped at this point (Csősz et al, 2021 ). The lack of trait value dependence in agreement and the lack of variance changes were even more promising.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…For instance, we need to learn more about the potential benefits and costs of these new digital measuring methods compared to traditional microscopic examination of specimens in entomology. As previous studies have shown, morphometric measurements are subject to some degree of error due to factors such as the experience of the researchers performing the measurements, the magnification of the equipment, and the size of the measured characters (Csősz et al, 2021 ; Takács et al, 2016 ; Yezerinac et al, 1992 ). Such problems can be easily overcome by using software to take measurements from high‐resolution digital images.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing ant morphology measurements from microscope and online AntWeb.org 2D z‐stacked images

Csősz

Báthori

Rádai

et al. 2023

Ecology and Evolution

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“…All measurements are subject to error, therefore repeatability, i.e., the degree of agreement between pairs of observations made on the same measurand under the same conditions, i.e. made by the same observer, using the same microscope, following the same measurement protocol as defined in Csősz et al 35 , was tested before the statistic framework was created. The repeatability of the recorded size parameters was assessed via Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) on repeated measurements of 16 ant specimens using Package ICC 36 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ectoparasitic fungi Rickia wasmannii infection is associated with smaller body size in Myrmica ants

Csősz

Rádai

Tartally

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Parasitism-generated negative effects on ant societies are multifaceted, implying individual and colony-level responses. Though laboratory based evidence shows that the sublethal fungus Rickia wasmannii is responsible for physiological and behavioral responses that may negatively affect individual workers’ resilience and life expectancy in Myrmica ant workers, colony-level stress response to this parasite is largely unknown. Here, we focus on understanding of a long-term, colony-level effect of Rickia infection on Myrmica scabrinodis ant populations by tracking trait size-based changes. We collected worker specimens from infected and uninfected colonies from the same population in order to: (1) compare body size in response to parasitism, (2) assess the extent to which possible changes in size are associated with the severity of infection, and (3) investigate shifts in body size in response to infection over time by testing correlation of workers’ ages and sizes. We found that workers from infected colonies were significantly smaller than their healthy congeners, but neither infection level nor the age of the workers showed significant correlation with the size in infected colonies. Decreasing body sizes in infected colonies can be ascribed to workers’ mediated effect toward developing larvae, which are unable to attain the average body size before they pupate.

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Insect morphometry is reproducible under average investigation standards

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 8 publications

References 68 publications

Classifying fossil Darwin wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) with geometric morphometrics of fore wings

Classifying fossil Darwin wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) with geometric morphometrics of fore wings

Comparing ant morphology measurements from microscope and online AntWeb.org 2D z‐stacked images

Ectoparasitic fungi Rickia wasmannii infection is associated with smaller body size in Myrmica ants

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