title: Distinction of males of the Lutzomyia intermedia (Lutz & Neiva, 1912) species complex by ratios between dimensions and by an artificial neural network (Diptera: Psychodidae, Phlebotominae).
abstract: The females of the two species of the Lutzomyia intermedia complex can be easily distinguished, but the males of each species are quite similar. The ratios between the extra-genital and the genital structures of L. neivai are larger than those of L. intermedia s. s., according to ANOVA. An artificial neural network was trained with a set of 300 examples, randomly taken from a sample of 358 individuals. The input vectors consisted of several ratios between some structures of each insect. The model was tested on the remaining 58 insects, 56 of which (96.6%) were correctly identified. This ratio of success can be considered remarkable if one takes into account the difficulty of attaining comparable results using traditional statistical techniques.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Microbiologia e Parasitologia, Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, 88040-900, Brasil. cbrisola@mbox1.ufsc.br
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Marcondes
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Borges
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005835:Genitalia; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008297:Male; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011576:Psychodidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013045:Species Specificity