Morphometric Analysis of Two Populations of Eurygaster maura (Het.: Scutelleridae) in Iran

Morphometric differentiations may explain biogeographic distinctions among populations of a given species. The possibility of morphometric distinctions between two populations of Eurygaster maura L. collected from the northeast (Golestan province) and the northwest (Azarbayejan province) of Iran was examined using principal component analysis over 25 body measurements (eight absolute and 17 proportional, separately). The northeast individuals were relatively larger and darker in colour than those of the northwest; total body lengths of the former were 13.56 ± 0.49 and 13.25± 0.38 mm (female and male, respectively), and the respective values for the latter were 12.74 ± 0.39 and 12.63 ± 0.49 mm. Generally, proportional indices including genital width had positively the highest contributions to population discrimination. Different habitats and climatic conditions may explain, in part, these morphological variations between the studied populations.