The Phenotype Expression, Taxa Level and Traits Configuration of Moluccas Ring Cowrie, Cypraea Annulus (Gastropod: Cypraeidae) Based on Morphometric Traits data

Knowledge and understanding of phenotype expression, the taxa level, the traits configuration among sub-populations play a role in monitoring and evaluation of biota performance, selection and hybridization programs. This study aimed to investigate phenotype expression, to determine the taxa level and to map the trait configuration between 32 subpopulations of the Moluccas ring cowrie (MRC), Cypraea annulus based on three data types of morphometric trait. Cypraea annulus samples were used as many as 2926 specimens from 32 subpopulations and 104 test traits. Observation and measurement of morphometric traits done in macrometry and micrometry for three data types namely binary, ordinal and numeric. The results of this study indicate that 32 sub-populations of MRC had various phenotype expressions of morphometric (PEM) for binary and ordinal data types with the highest coefficient values in the range of 0.85 to 0.89 for binary data types and 0.80 to 0.84 for ordinal data types, whereas for numerical data types Its expression was homogeneous with the highest value range 0.95 - 1.00. The morphometric taxa level (MTL) for the binary data type obtained 17 taxa at 70% similarity level; ordinal data type obtained 19 taxa at correlation level 0,700 and numeric data type obtained one taxon at correlation level 0,970. The map of morphometric trait configuration (MTC) of the MRC trait derived four trait classes for binary data types and three trait classes for ordinal and numeric data types. The different variations of PEM and MTL proved that the expression of morphometric proportions of the MRC was strongly influenced by the environment, lifetime and life stages of snails. In addition, the proximity of the similarity of expression between the 32 sub-populations, although living in a geographical location, lifetime and stage of development of different living.