Unsupervised learning for detection of possible sexual dimorphism in larvae of Belgica antarctica Jacobs (Diptera, Chironomidae)

Abstract

Belgica antarctica is one of the two native chironomid species of the Antarctic Peninsula. In this species, adult males and females are considerably different, yet the question of larval sex differences in morphometric parameters remains unanswered. In this paper, we analyze five morphometric parameters: head capsule length, head capsule width, mandible width, mandible length, mentum length of 140 fourth-instar larvae of B. antarctica from seven study plots in the south of Petermann Island, Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctic Peninsula. To infer possible sexual dimorphism, we use the methods of unsupervised analysis (PCA and hierarchical clusterization). Our results suggest that the selected morphometric features of width and length are highly intercorrelated and cannot differentiate sex in the sampled larvae of B. antarctica.