It is not always about body size: evidence of Rensch's rule in a male weapon

Autor(es)

Machado, Glauco ^[1] ; Buzatto, Bruno A. ^{[2, 3]} ; Samia, Diogo S. M. ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Biociencias, LAGE Dept Ecol, BR-05508090 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[2] Macquarie Univ, Dept Biol Sci E8C 209, Eastern Rd, Sydney, NSW 2109 - Australia

^[3] Univ Western Australia, Ctr Evolut Biol, Sch Biol Sci M092, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009 - Australia

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: BIOLOGY LETTERS; v. 17, n. 6 JUN 23 2021.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

In many species, sexual dimorphism increases with body size when males are the larger sex but decreases when females are the larger sex, a macro-evolutionary pattern known as Rensch's rule (RR). Although empirical studies usually focus exclusively on body size, Rensch's original proposal included sexual differences in other traits, such as ornaments and weapons. Here, we used a clade of harvestmen to investigate whether two traits follow RR: body size and length of the fourth pair of legs (legs IV), which are used as weapons in male-male fights. We found that males were slightly smaller than females and body size did not follow RR, whereas legs IV were much longer in males and followed RR. We propose that sexual selection might be stronger on legs IV length than on body size in males, and we discuss the potential role of condition dependence in the emergence of RR. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 15/06734-1 - Evolução do dimorfismo sexual dependente de condição em um clado de aracnídeos neotropicais: uma análise comparativa da hipótese de captura gênica
• Beneficiário: Diogo Soares Menezes Samia
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 15/10448-4 - Inter-relações entre cuidado paternal e seleção sexual em opiliões
• Beneficiário: Glauco Machado
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular