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A revision of chiggers of the minuta species-group (Acari: Trombiculidae: Neotrombicula Hirst, 1925) using multivariate morphometrics

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Abstract

We revise chiggers belonging to the minuta-species group (genus Neotrombicula Hirst, 1925) from the Palaearctic using size-free multivariate morphometrics. This approach allowed us to resolve several diagnostic problems. We show that the widely distributed Neotrombicula scrupulosa Kudryashova, 1993 forms three spatially and ecologically isolated groups different from each other in size or shape (morphometric property) only: specimens from the Caucasus are distinct from those from Asia in shape, whereas the Asian specimens from plains and mountains are different from each other in size. We developed a multivariate classification model to separate three closely related species: N. scrupulosa, N. lubrica Kudryashova, 1993 and N. minuta Schluger, 1966. This model is based on five shape variables selected from an initial 17 variables by a best subset analysis using a custom size-correction subroutine. The variable selection procedure slightly improved the predictive power of the model, suggesting that it not only removed redundancy but also reduced ‘noise’ in the dataset. The overall classification accuracy of this model is 96.2, 96.2 and 95.5%, as estimated by internal validation, external validation and jackknife statistics, respectively. Our analyses resulted in one new synonymy: N. dimidiata Stekolnikov, 1995 is considered to be a synonym of N. lubrica. Both N. scrupulosa and N. lubrica are recorded from new localities. A key to species of the minuta-group incorporating results from our multivariate analyses is presented.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr Naina I. Kudryashova (Zoological Museum of Moscow State University, Russia) for her kind help in our work with the collection of ZMUM. We thank Dr Andre V. Bochkov (Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia) for collecting specimens. This research was supported by grants from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Nos 06-04-48220 and 09-04-00738) and by a grant of the Ministry of Science of the Russian Federation for the State Support of Leading Scientific Schools (No. SS-5563.2006.4) to AAS and a grant from the US National Science Foundation (NSF DEB-0613769) to PBK.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoological Institute, Universitetskaya quay, 1, 199034, St Petersburg, Russia

    Alexandr A. Stekolnikov

  2. Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, 1109 Geddes Ave., Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109-1079, USA

    Pavel B. Klimov

Authors
  1. Alexandr A. Stekolnikov
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  2. Pavel B. Klimov
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Correspondence to Alexandr A. Stekolnikov.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Online Resource 1

Measurements of the specimens of the minuta group (N = 365) (XLS 107 kb)

Online Resource 2

The 5-variable classification model for Neotrombicula scrupulosa, N. lubrica and N. minuta (N = 313) (XLS 130 kb)

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Stekolnikov, A.A., Klimov, P.B. A revision of chiggers of the minuta species-group (Acari: Trombiculidae: Neotrombicula Hirst, 1925) using multivariate morphometrics. Syst Parasitol 77, 55–69 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-010-9258-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-010-9258-7

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