Abstract
Comparative studies on the size of adult Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) frequently rely on single linear estimates of body size, namely of forewing length or wingspan. As the shape of the wings of these insects - in fact, of all body parts - differs from one taxon to another, such estimates of body mass may not be adequate for comparisons across a wide taxonomic range. Using the length and width of the forewing, thorax and abdomen, as well as the wing area of 375 species and their correlations with dry body weight, several composite indices were determined that might be used in different circumstances. As the coefficients of determination from the multivariate regression models were rather high (R 2 >0.96), the results are believed to be reliable. A critical re-evaluation of the results indicates that important varia- tions in the regression slopes described here would be expected, if at all, only from species with unusual body shapes. Incidentally, the bivariate relationships are in agreement with former comparative work on Lepidoptera and other terrestrial insects in that the relationship between body weight and single linear measurements follows a slightly negatively allometric trend, implying comparatively lighter bodies at the largest body sizes and relatively heavier ones at the shortest body sizes.
Highlights
As one of the hyper-diverse insect taxa, the order Lepidoptera is well suited for comparative work on subjects of broad biological relevance such as the evolution of body size and its correlation with other traits (e.g., Nilsson and Forsman 2003; Simonsen and Kristensen 2003; Allen et al 2011; Ribeiro and Freitas 2011; Symonds et al 2012)
The dry body mass of the selected species covered a range of variation of nearly five orders of magnitude, from 0.03 mg to more than 2 g, corresponding to forewing lengths of between 1.8 mm and 110 mm
The lightest and smallest species belonged to the genus Stigmella (Nepticulidae, with one male weighting 0.034 mg), while two males of the reputedly longest-winged moth, the Erebiidae Thysannia agrippina (Cramer, 1776) had dry weights of 916–1,300 mg and one male of the Saturniidae Attacus atlas (L., 1758) weighed 1,126 mg
Summary
As one of the hyper-diverse insect taxa, the order Lepidoptera is well suited for comparative work on subjects of broad biological relevance such as the evolution of body size and its correlation with other traits (e.g., Nilsson and Forsman 2003; Simonsen and Kristensen 2003; Allen et al 2011; Ribeiro and Freitas 2011; Symonds et al 2012) This requires an estimate of body size that is valid across distantly related subtaxa, as a broad taxonomic coverage would be of interest for recovering long-term evolutionary trends or patterns. The first consists of using body length or an alternative linear measure (such as head width) to estimate body mass, based on the generally good correlations between those measurements and fresh or dry body weight across large numbers of species of invertebrates
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