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Describing Variability in Mandible Shapes in Selected Workers of the Ant Diacamma rugosum (LeGuillou) 1842 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae)

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Author Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science and Mathematics, MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology, Iligan City, PHILIPPINES

Int. Res. J. Biological Sci., Volume 2, Issue (6), Pages 8-15, June,10 (2013)

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine mandibular shape variation in Diacamma rugosum which still retains the primitive faculties as solitary hunter and as a social worker. The specimens used in this study were collected from Initao National Park, Initao, Misamis Oriental and stored in 70% ethyl alcohol solution. Body size index measurements of each worker were taken. The mandibles of the ants were dissected from 60 randomly selected worker ants and photographed prior to Geometric Morphometric analyses. A total of 100 points were digitized from images of the mandibles using TpsDig ver. 2.12. The X and Y coordinates of the outline points were saved in Matlab format and were subjected to Relative Warp Analysis to remove non-shape components. Results showed that size-dependent shape variation was not observed in the solitary species D. rugosum. Pearson correlation values for shape variables against body size in D. rugosum ranged only from r = 0.006 to 0.197. These results show that age- and size- related changes in the shapes of the mandible may accompany task partitioning in ants and may be important in studying the evolution of sociogenesis in ants.

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