Spectral measure of color variation of black - orange - black (BOB) pattern in small parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae), a statistical approach

Abstract

Small parasitic wasps are abundant and extremely diverse, yet their colors remain mostly uncharacterized. One of the more common color patterns observed in these wasps is a black-orange-black pattern, which is especially common among neotropical species of Scelionidae. In this work, we propose the use of microspectrophotometry in combination with statistical analysis methods in order to study the spectral properties in such cases. Functional Data Analysis and statistical analysis of Euclidean distances for color components were applied to study color differences both inter and intragenera.