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Multivariate morphometrics and evolutionary patterns in some species of the genus uca leach, 1814 (Crustacea: Brachyura: Ocypodidae)

 

 

José Alexandre F. Diniz Filho

Departamento de Biologia, Instituto de Biociências - UNESP, Caixa Postal 178, 13500 Rio Claro, SP, Brasil

 

 

ABSTRACT

Twelve quantitative morphological characters were measured in 35 individuals belonging to six species of the genus Uca Leach 1814 (Crustacea: Brachyura: Ocypodidae). A multivariate statistical analysis (PCA) was performed to search for multidimensional allometric patterns and for consensus with some phylogenetic schemes proposed by Albrecht and Von Hagen (Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 70: 393-399, 1981). The first principal component (PCI), usually interpreted as a general size factor, accounted for 84.3% of the total variability of the sample. The second component (PCII), usually interpreted as a shape component, accounted for 8.9% of the variability. Regressions of PCII on PCI, per group, allowed the analysis of the allometric patterns of each species. The morphometric similarity in PCI and PCII, and also the allometric patterns, were compared with cladistic schemes, producing a clear view of the evolutionary lines of the group. The interspecific allometric variation permits concluding that the old genus Minuca is composed of species in which shape variation can be explained by size variation, without the need for another adaptive hypothesis to explain this interspecific shape variation.

Keywords: Morphometrics; Genus Uca; Crustacea.

 

 

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