Mark Anthony J. Torres1, Liza A. Adamat1, Muhmin Michael E. Manting1, Sharon Rose M. Tabugo1, Ravindra C. Joshi2, Leocadio Sebastian2,Alberto T. Barrion2 and Cesar G. Demayo1*

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the possible number of developmental modules defining the shape of the forewing of the rice black bug Scotinopharacoarctata. The new method of geometric morphometrics (GM) was used and the shapes of the forewings were summarized via Procrustes analysis of a total of 120 landmarks. In this study, Modularity and Integration Analysis was used as a tool to test a priori models of variational modularity in multidimensional (mainly morphometric) data in order to analyze the number of developmental modules of the forewings of the insect. Twelve a priori models of variational modularity in the GM forewing data were tested using the γ* (Gamma*) test for goodness of fit (GoF) statistic by comparing the observed and expected covariance matrices. Jackknife support values for each model were also computed using γ* as the GoF statistic. The analysis was implemented based on a total of 1000 replicates, dropping 10% of the specimens per jackknife replicate, and computing 95% confidence intervals for the statistic. Results showed that the female RBB forewing is spatially organized into two modules, the partition of clavus and membrane and the corium as an independent structure whereas the male populations exhibit two possible developmental models. These modules are mutually integrated but statistically independent from each other.