Systematic relationships of rice black bugs, Scotinophara spp. inferred using nonmetric multidimensional scaling technique and parsimony analysis

Torres, Mark Anthony J.; Barrion, Alberto T.; Joshi, Ravindra C.; Sebastian, Leocadio S.; Barrion, Adelina A.; Barrion-Dupo, Aimee-Lyn A.; Demayo, Cesar * G.

doi:10.21608/eajbsa.2010.15249

Systematic relationships of rice black bugs, Scotinophara spp. inferred using nonmetric multidimensional scaling technique and parsimony analysis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science and Mathematics, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology 9200 Iligan City, Philippines

² Philippine Rice Research Institute (PHILRICE), Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, Philippines

³ Institute of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines, Los Baños, Laguna

10.21608/eajbsa.2010.15249

Abstract

The systematic relationships of Philippine rice black bugs (RBBs), Scotinophara spp. was inferred using nonmetric multidimensional scaling technique (MDSCALE) and parsimony analysis to determine patterns of variation among the species and species groups. The MDSCALE result revealed a very distinct structure with clusters representing species groups visually apparent in the map. The distinct gaps in the phenetic spaces between species groups reflect the ease by which the species can be classified using numerical phenetics. On the contrary, parsimony analysis showed that the species groups did not form monophyletic groups. The results of the study are discussed in the light of patterns of differentiation among the species. It is suggested that more parsimony informative characters should be included to shed light into our basic understanding of the various evolutionary processes involved in the differentiation of these species of black bugs.

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