Study On Morphological Changes And Modular Integration Of Male Athletic Organs Based On Geometric Survey

Geometric morphometric analysis, a new morphological analysis method combined techniques of analytic geometry, computer graphic and biometrics, is used for quantifying the size and shape variation between intra-and interspecies though analyzing a large amount of statistical data. Modularity and Integration research is an important part of geometric morphometric analysis, it can explain the relationship between the different components of biological structure in evolutionary process. Sinopodisma Chang is founded in1940. It belongs to Orthopnea, Catantopidae, Podisminae, comprised of32species distributed in the south of the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and the south of Japan. The fore wings of these micropterous grasshoppers are degenerated and scalelike without the flying ability. They mainly rely on hind legs and related structures for jumping. So they are very good kind of experimental materials to study the morphological diversity. This study applies several of the standard tools of geometric morphometrics, which include ANOVA, Correlation analysis, PCA, Thin-plate spline analysis, Multivariate regression, Modularity and Integration analysis and Cluster analysis in the context of four characters landmark coordinates, to investigate the changing rule, allometry, morphometric modularity and integration, phylogenetic relationship and the taxonomic values of four locomotive organs-fore wing, hind femur, lower kneelobe, mesosternum and metasternum,137specimens belonging to14species in genus Sinopldisma are used. The results show below:1. Morphological variation of four male locomotive organs:Centroid size in ANOVA performed to Homogeneity test revealeds that size variation is no obvious between intraspecies but significant between interspecies in fore wing, hind femur, lower kneelobe, mesosternum and metasternum. The size of these four locomotive organs in S.guizhouensis and S.quadraticerus suggest highly significant difference from that of the other species in Duncan test, LSD test and Box plot. And the Scatter plots of some species have a certain degree of overlap in PCA, but on the whole not completely overlap. In Relative warp ordination plot, it not only appears that there are more difference in the distal tip and posterior margin of fore wing than that of the anterior margin, but also shows the major and minor variation in hind femur are its widest part and knee, the minor is the distal tip of hind femur. Similarly, it shows an obvious change in lower kneelobe is on the base; the minor is on the distal tip. The major variational part of mesosternum and metasternum is the lateral lobe of mesosternum, the anterior margin of mesosternum and metasternum on the base.2. Correlation of size variation of four male locomotive organs:It shows that the size of fore wing is medium positive correlated with that of hind femur and highly correlated with that of lower kneelobe and mesosternum and metasternum respectively in Correlation analysis. It also suggests that the size of hind femur is highly positive correlated with that of mesosternum and metasternum. In addition, the size of lower kneelobe is medium correlated with that of mesosternum and metasternum. The reason of the positive correlation among four locomotive organs may be direct relationship between body size and fitness traits.3. Allometry of four male locomotive organs:It shows that the most obvious and the minor allometry part are in hind femur and in fore wing respectively in the results of multivariate regression of shape on size. However, lower kneelobe has medial allometry. Allometry of mesosternum and metasternum are the least unapparent. Comparing the original data with the one eliminating the effect of allometry, although allometry has the main contribution to the integration of mesosternum and metasternum, it has no responsible for that of the rest of locomotive organs.4. Morphometric modularity and integration of four male locomotive organs:It shows that fore wing is partitioned into2best fit modules in Modularity and Integration analysis, namely anterior and posterior margin of fore wing. Besides the best fit modules in hind femur is on distal and basal part, narrow place which close to the knee, and the rest part of hind femur. The optimum modules of lower kneelobe are distal and basal of lower kneelobe, protruding position of superior margin and inferior margin. Mesosternum and metasternum are partitioned into3optimum modules, namely mesosternum and metasternum except lateral lobe, and lateral lobe of mesosternum and metasternum.5. Phylogenetic relationship of genus Sinopodisma based on four male locomotive organs:The results of the UPGMA cluster analysis on species relationship by four male locomotive organs are inconsistent, but some species have shown some similarities. The results are different from the traditional morphological classification and cladistics results, the main difference is phylogenetic relationship of S.sunzishanensis, S.wulingshana and S.wuyishana. And quite different with the results of the UPGMA cluster analysis based on reproductive organ of Sinopodisma spp.. The male reproductive organ of S.jiulianshana and S.pieli, S.huangshana and S.houshana shown some similarities, but suggest significant difference of four male locomotives organs. S.guizhouensis showed highly significant difference from that of the other species in both analyses.6. Taxonomic values of four male locomotive organs:It suggests that the fore wing worth more valuable than the lower kneelobe as morphological character in taxonomy because of its greater variation in size and shape. The character of mesosternum, metasternum and hind femur are not suitable for basis of taxonomy of genus Sinopodisma since there are no significant interspecies difference among them in size and shape.