The modern morphometric approach to identify eggs of Triatominae

Parasites & Vectors

Table 2 Size variation of the complete egg (sqrA and Perimeter) and of the operculum (Centroid size)

Species		sqrA		Perimeter		Centroid size
Species		Mean	Variance	Mean	Variance	Mean	Variance
R. ecuadoriensis	L	1.07	0.0019	4.51^c	0.038	0.67	0.0012
	M	1.09	0.002	4.65^b	0.037	0.74	0.0012
T. carrioni		1.22	0.0029	4.64^b	0.042	0.68	0.0013
P. chinai		1.32	0.0025	4.91^a	0.031	0.72	0.0018
P. howardi		1.28	0.0025	4.71^b	0.035	0.78	0.002

Abbreviations: R Rhodnius, L Loja Province, M Manabí Province, T Triatoma, P Panstrongylus, sqrA, mean square root of the area within the egg boundary
Note: All pairwise comparisons of mean sqrA were significant (permutation test, 1000 cycles, P ranging from P = 0.015 to P < 0.0001). The perimeter showed significant differences between three groups: (a) P. chinai, (b) P. howardi, T. carrioni and R. ecuadoriensis Manabí and (c) R. ecuadoriensis Loja (permutation test, 1000 cycles, P < 0.0001). The only significant difference of variance was observed for sqrA between T. carrioni and the Loja sample of R. ecuadoriensis (permutation test, 1000 cycles, P = 0.002). The mean size of the operculum was significantly different between all comparisons (permutation test, 1000 cycles, P < 0.0001). The variance of the operculum size was not significantly different between groups

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