a geometric morphometric study on geographical iranian populations of the pod borer, helicoverpa armigera (lepidoptera: noctuidae)

multivariate analyses of the morphological variation in five geographical populations of the pod borer, helicoverpa armigera (hã¼bner), was performed using 15 and 12 landmarks selected from the fore- and hindwings respectively. using their geometric morphometric characters (26 in the forewings and 20 in the hindwings), 287 and 277 images of fore- and hindwings were made respectively. analyses of size showed the wings of the females are bigger than those of the males (forewing: f = 3.98, p = 0.047; hindwing: f = 14.62, p = 0.000) on populations tested. the discriminant function analysis (dfa) of fore- and hindwings differentiated five geographical populations with 86.1% and 69.3%, respectively. the multivariate analysis of variance (manova) of shape variables in fore- and hindwings indicated significant differences among populations as well as sexes (at least for one of the shape variables). sex interaction within the populations was significant in fore- and hindwings, particularly based on the hindwing landmarks. the relative warp analysis (rwa) showed well-supported discrimination between sexes. the results showed significant difference between the sexes and also within the populations.