Weapon allometry varies with latitude in the New Zealand giraffe weevil

• Published in: Journal of evolutionary biology Vol. 27; no. 12; pp. 2864 - 2870
• Main Authors: Painting, C. J, Buckley, T. R, Holwell, G. I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Birkhäuser 01.12.2014; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: allometry; Animal behavior; Animals; Bergmann's rule; body size; Body Size - physiology; Curculionidae; ecology; Evolution; exaggerated trait; Female; females; Geography; Insects; latitude; Male; males; Mating Preference, Animal - physiology; Models, Biological; New Zealand; Regression Analysis; Sex Characteristics; sexual selection; Temperature; Weevils - anatomy & histology; Weevils - physiology; New Zealand; body size; exaggerated trait; Bergmann's rule; sexual selection
• ISSN: 1010-061X; 1420-9101
• DOI: 10.1111/jeb.12517

Animal body size commonly shows a relationship with latitude to the degree that this phenomenon is one of the few ‘rules’ discussed in evolutionary ecology: Bergmann's rule. Although exaggerated secondary sexual traits frequently exhibit interesting relationships with body size (allometries) and are expected to evolve rapidly in response to environmental variation, the way in which allometry might interact with latitude has not been addressed. We present data showing latitudinal variation in body size and weapon allometry for the New Zealand giraffe weevil (Lasiorhynchus barbicornis). Males display an extremely elongated rostrum used as a weapon during fights for access to females. Consistent with Bergmann's rule, mean body size increased with latitude. More interestingly, weapon allometry also varied with latitude, such that lower latitude populations exhibited steeper allometric slopes between weapon and body size. To our knowledge, this is the first study to document a latitudinal cline in weapon allometry and is therefore a novel contribution to the collective work on Bergmann's rule and secondary sexual trait variation.