Measuring proboscis length in Lepidoptera: a review
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REVIEW
Measuring proboscis length in Lepidoptera: a review Flóra Vajna1 · János Kis1 · Viktor Szigeti2 Received: 18 March 2020 / Revised: 12 October 2020 / Accepted: 28 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Mouthpart morphologies relate to diet range. Differences among or within species may result in resource partitioning and speciation. In plant-pollinator interactions, mouthpart length has an important role in foraging efficiency, resource partitioning and pollination, hence measuring nectarivorous insect mouthparts’ morphological variation is important. Most adult lepidopterans feed on nectars and participate in pollination. Although a vast range of studies applied morphometric measurements on lepidopteran proboscis (tongue) length, general recommendations on methodologies are scarce. We review available proboscis length measurement methodologies for Lepidoptera. Focusing on how proboscides have been measured, how accurate the measurements were, and how were these constrained by sampling effort, we searched for research articles investigating lepidopteran proboscis length and extracted variables on the aims of measurements, preparation and measurement methodology, and descriptive statistics. Different methods were used both for preparation and measurements. Many of the 135 reviewed papers did not provide descriptions of the procedures applied. Research aims were different among studies. Forty-four percent of the studies measured dead specimens, 13% measured living specimens, and 43% were unclear. Fifteen percent of the studies used callipers, 9% rulers, 1% millimetre scales, 4% ocular micrometers, 3% drawings and 14% photographs; 55% were non-informative. We emphasise the importance to provide detailed descriptions on the methods applied. Providing guidelines for future sampling and measurements, we encourage fellow researchers planning measurements to take into account the effect of specimen preparation techniques on the results, define landmarks, consider resolution, accuracy, precision, choose an appropriate sample size and report details on methodology. Keywords Butterfly · Morphology · Moth · Sampling design · Tongue length · Trait
Introduction Animals’ mouthpart morphologies relate to their diet: variation in mouthpart shape and size across similarly feeding species determines which species exploits which part of a diet range if potential food is heterogeneous and mouthpart morphology associates with differences in exploitation efficiency. Morphological variance within foraging guilds Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-020-00507-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Viktor Szigeti [email protected] 1
Department of Ecology, Institute for Biology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Budapest, Hungary
Lendület Ecosystem Services Research Group, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, Alkotmány utca 2‑4., Vácrátót 2163, Hungary
2
may result in spec
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