Title: Causes of variation in sexual allometry: a case study with the mating signals and genitalia of<i>Enchenopa</i>treehoppers (Hemiptera Membracidae)
Abstract: Abstract Sexual traits show a great range of variation in static allometry, with some mating displays and weapons showing hyperallometry (steep increase in trait size with body size), others showing isometry (even scaling on body size), and others showing hypoallometry (shallow scaling on body size). We test two hypotheses that attempt to explain variation in sexual allometry, with a comparison of the allometry of behavioral (advertisement signals) and morphological (body and genitalia) traits. Our study species was a member of the Enchenopa binotata species complex of treehoppers (Hemiptera Membracidae), a group with sexually selected vibrational advertisement signals and naturally selected genitalia. Using advertisement signal traits, we find weak support for the hypothesis that the form of selection (stabilizing or directional) can account for variation sexual allometries. Using genitalia traits, we find support for the hypothesis that the naturally selected functions of genitalia (as opposed to their sexually selected functions) can account for the widespread pattern of hypoallometry in animal genitalia. We compare the relationship between the steepness and dispersion of signal and genitalia allometries, and discuss implications for their potential to be selected as indicators of body size. KEY WORDS: genitalindicator traitmating signalphytophagous insect ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank Gerlinde Höbel and four anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments and discussion. This work was funded by NSF Grant IOS-0919962 to R.L. Rodríguez, and by UWM SURF awards to N. Al-Wathiqui and R.L. Rodríguez.
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 28
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