The taxonomy of this genus is studied, three species of Eurycantha were chosen, E. horrida, E. coriacea and E. calcarata from which two subspecies were collected, termed and identified by the Phasmid Study Group: PSG 23 and PSG 44. Morphological characters and morphometrical data of the adults of E. calcarata PSG 23 and E. horrida as well as data on the ultrastructure and morphometrics of the eggs of all aforementioned species were obtained from this study to show differences and similarities between species and subspecies; partial 16S gene rRNA sequence was used to show genetic relationships between the species. / Similarities of the various wild populations of E. horrida were determined based on morphological and genetic data, showing that even though the species is distributed vastly between mainland Papua New Guinea and surrounding islands, characteristics vary little. Egg measurements varied more between subspecies of E. calcarata than between E. calcarata and E. coriacea; the mtDNA sequence equally showed higher intraspecific differences between E. calcarata subspecies than within E. horrida populations. Morphological and genetic data showed that E. horrida and E. calcarata are very closely related. Morphometric ratios between the two species were not significantly different, although there was a variance close to 6.2 percent in the mtDNA sequencing results. Genetic data and morphological characters of the egg showed that E. coriacea was the farthest removed species of those studied with a variance in mtDNA sequencing of 7.3 percent with E. calcarata and 6.8 percent with E. horrida.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.20250 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Chee, Zoe Aimee. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Natural Resource Sciences.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001609752, proquestno: MQ44146, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.0016 seconds