Z08016; Online publication date 4 February 2009
Received 25 May 2008; accepted 28 December 2008

New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2009, Vol. 36: 41–46
0301–4223/09/3601–0041 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2009

PDF file of entire paper: Print-quality (2148K) | screen-quality (437K)

New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts

Geometric morphometric study of populations of the social wasp, Polistes dominulus (Christ, 1791) from Zanjan province, north-west Iran

Roohollah Abbasi^*

Department of Biology
Faculty of Science
Shahid Beheshti University
Tehran, Iran

Maedeh Mashhadikhan

Department of Biology
Faculty of Science
Islamic Azad University – Damghan Branch
Damghan, Iran

Mehdi Abbasi

Department of Irrigation
Faculty of Agriculture
University of Zabol
Zabol, Iran

Bahram Kiabi

Department of Biology
Faculty of Science
Shahid Beheshti University
Tehran, Iran

^*Present address: PO Box 45431–16639, Pari Mahneshan Township, Zanjan Province, Iran.

roohollahabbasi@gmail.com

Abstract We analysed morphological variation among 17 forewing characters within five populations of the paper wasp, Polistes dominulus, in Iran. The raw planar coordinate data were aligned using geometric and mathematical calculations in Kendall’s shape space. After transfer of the data to a linear Euclidean space, i.e., tangent space, multivariate analysis of 135 images of forewings were made using their geometric morphometric characters (30 in the forewings). We observed a direct correlation between morphological characters and the geographically easiest travel distance along river valleys and mountain ranges.

Keywords  geometric morphometries; Iran; Polistes dominulus; thin plate-spline; Zanjan province

Z08016; Online publication date 4 February 2009
Received 25 May 2008; accepted 28 December 2008

New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2009, Vol. 36: 41–46
0301–4223/09/3601–0041 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2009

PDF file of entire paper: Print-quality (2148K) | screen-quality (437K)

---

This year's abstracts | Journal home page | All abstracts | Publishing home page