Nezara

Matesco, Viviana Cauduro, Bianchi, Filipe Michels, Fürstenau, Brenda Bianca Rodrigues Jesse, Silva, Priscila Poock Da, Campos, Luiz Alexandre & Grazia, Jocelia, 2014, External egg structure of the Pentatomidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) and the search for characters with phylogenetic importance, Zootaxa 3768 (3), pp. 351-385 : 372-373

Analysis of Nezara

The analysis including three discrete and three continuous egg characters resulted in one most parsimonious tree with 63 steps ( Fig. 82 ). The characters and states for eggs are as follows.

Character 35. Egg, color prior to embryonic development: (0) light brown, (1) yellow

Character 36. Egg, chorion, pigmentation: (0) present, (1) absent

Character 37. Egg, chorion, sculpture pattern: (0) spinose, (1) smooth

Character 38. Egg, length (range, in millimeters) (continuous)

Character 39. Egg, width (range, in millimeters) (continuous)

Character 40. Egg, aero-micropylar processes, number (range) (continuous)

None of the eggs’ characters were informative for the analysis. Characters 35 to 37 had ambiguous reconstruction due to missing data. The spinose chorion (character 37, state 0) is plesiomorphic but with uncertain evolution of the apomorphic smooth chorion. All values of egg length (character 38) overlap; the plesiomorphic state ranges from 1.12 to 1.20 mm. The egg width (character 39) values did not overlap, so the plesiomorphic condition for the entire group ranges from 0.95 to 1.00 mm and from 0.84 to 0.95 mm for the genus Nezara . The number of AMPs (character 40) also overlaps among species (except in C. purpureipennis ); the plesiomorphic condition of the clade including A. chloris and Nezara spp. is 27 to 30 AMPs, whereas the plesiomorphic condition for the entire group is 25 to 30 AMPs. The availability of egg measures and AMPs number for other species of Nezara would be interesting to test these assumptions and to minimize the missing data in the analysis. Information on the eggs of N. yunnana Zheng would be especially desirable to aid in solving the only polytomy of the cladogram. Ferrari et al. (2010) mentioned that a close relationship between N. viridula (Linnaeus) and N. antennata Scott has been suggested based on different sets of characters (e.g., interspecific mating behavior), but the lack of studies with N. yunnana prevented further conclusions. This highlights the importance of searching for the greatest diversity in number and source for characters but is also a reminder that for rare or poorly studied species, information will be missing on several sets of characters.

Figures

FIGURES 82 – 83. Fig. 82. Most parsimonious tree (L = 63) in the analysis of the genus Nezara resulting from analysis under equal weighting of characters with 40 characters, six of which were egg characters. Fig. 83. Stric consensus of 10 most parsimonious trees (L = 104.493) of the Chinavia obstinata group resulting from analysis under equal weighting of characters with 45 characters, five of which were egg characters.