Morphometric Variation Affecting Sexual Size Dimorphism in Neopedies brunneri (Orthoptera: Acrididae)

Abstract

Neopedies brunneri (Giglio-Tos, 1894) is a grasshopper belonging to the family Acrididae. This group of insects usually has economic importance in Argentina because of their ability to experience outbreaks, but little is known about them. Insect populations usually differ at the phenotypic level, often according to geographical and environmental variables, which may be a good indicator of some other factors with adaptive significance (such as developmental rate, seasonal resource disposal, and growing seasonal length). The aim of this article is to report the first preliminary analysis of phenotypic variation in natural populations of N. brunneri from central Argentina to study the amount of intra- and interpopulation variation in morphometric traits and their probable association with geographic and climatic variables. We found the existence of morphometrical differences among populations and a pattern of geographical variation, with males and females from eastern populations being larger than the ones from the west. Sexual size dimorphism was also detected and found to be correlated to geographical and climactic variation. Moreover, geographic patterns of sexual size dimorphism were determined, helping to clarify differential susceptibility of both sexes to environmental conditions.