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Cockroach forewing area and venation variabilities relate

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Abstract

Cockroaches are among the very few organisms allowing study of quantitative changes of intraspecific variability over time. The variability studied here within three Mesozoic and one living species shown independence (R2 = 0.003–0.093) of forewing areas (CVs 10.96–18.02) on number of veins of corresponding individuals (CVs = 6.83–7.80). In contrast, the average number of veins among studied species correlates with the average forewing area (R2 = 0.986), which is not reflected in the variability trends. Study of wing areas and their variability as an informative source of data should thus be included in systematic descriptions of both living and extinct species.

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Correspondence to Róbert Oružinský.

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Oružinský, R., Vršanský, P. Cockroach forewing area and venation variabilities relate. Biologia 72, 814–818 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1515/biolog-2017-0090

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