title: Distinction of Indian commercial lac insect lines of Kerria spp. (Homoptera: Coccoidea) based on their morphometrics.
abstract: The lac insects belong to the genus Kerria (Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Kerriidae) and are commercially exploited worldwide for the production of lac, which comes from their waxy test and has diverse industrial applications. The insects are maintained by the Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums as distinctive lines that are cultivated and commercialized in the lac producing areas of India. The lines are all considered to belong to the genus Kerria but without validation of their taxonomic characters, and their identity to species has not been ascertained. This study used single-factor analysis of variance and several multivariate analyses, such as principal component analysis, discriminant function analysis, and canonical discriminant analysis to explore the morphometrics of some of the adult female lac insect lines. The results have enabled the identification of some taxonomically significant characters in adult females, which has grouped the 32 lac insect lines studied into 15 species along with validation of the most significant characters. Distinctive grouping patterns for the species of Kerria have been brought out using morphometrics.
authors.affiliation: Division of Entomology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012, India a.ayashaa@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ayashaa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.affiliation: Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Ranchi, India.
authors.forename: Ranganathan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramani
authors.affiliation: Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Ranchi, India.
authors.forename: Kewal K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Patna Campus, India.
authors.forename: Ambrish S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Vidyarthi
authors.affiliation: Division of Entomology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012, India.
authors.forename: Vilayanoor V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Ramamurthy
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006430:Hemiptera / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification*; D007194:India; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D025341:Principal Component Analysis
keywords: canonical discriminant analysis; discriminant function analysis; lac insect; new specie; principal component analysis