title: Multivariate analysis to discriminate species of phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera:Psychodidae): Lutzomyia townsendi, L. spinicrassa, and L. youngi.
abstract: Multivariate discriminant analysis was employed to discriminate on a morphological basis females of 3 closely related sand fly species, Lutzomyia townsendi (Ortiz), L. spinicrassa Morales, Osorno-Mesa, Osorno & Hoyos, and L. youngi Feliciangeli & Murillo. Principal component and canonical discriminant analysis compared a set of 31 morphological characters measured from known specimens to detect differences among the 3 species. A subset of 6 characters separated the 3 species with a high level of confidence. A simple method is presented to identify an unknown specimen as L. townsendi, L. spinicrassa, or L. youngi using these 6 morphological characters.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología Universidad de Los Andes, Venezuela.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Añez
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Valenta
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cazorla
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Quicke
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Feliciangeli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011576:Psychodidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification*