In:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, The Royal Society, Vol. 277, No. 1701 ( 2010-12-22), p. 3819-3826
Abstract:
The degree and/or direction of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) varies considerably among species and among populations within species. Although this variation is in part genetically based, much of it is probably due to the sexes exhibiting differences in body size plasticity. Here, we use the hawkmoth, Manduca sexta , to test the hypothesis that moths reared on different diet qualities and at different temperatures will exhibit sex-specific body size plasticity. In addition, we explore the proximate mechanisms that potentially create sex-specific plasticity by examining three physiological variables known to regulate body size in this insect: the growth rate, the critical weight (which measures the cessation of juvenile hormone secretion from the corpora allata) and the interval to cessation of growth (ICG; which measures the time interval between the critical weight and the secretion of the ecdysteroids that regulate pupation and metamorphosis). We found that peak larval mass of males and females did not exhibit sex-specific plasticity in response to diet or temperature. However, the sexes did exhibit sex-specific plasticity in the mechanism that controls size; males and females exhibited sex-specific plasticity in the growth rate and the critical weight in response to both diet and temperature, whereas the ICG only exhibited sex-specific plasticity in response to diet. Our results suggest it is important for the sexes to maintain the same degree of SSD across environments and that this is accomplished by the sexes exhibiting differential sensitivity of the physiological factors that determine body size to environmental variation.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0962-8452
,
1471-2954
DOI:
10.1098/rspb.2010.0895
Language:
English
Publisher:
The Royal Society
Publication Date:
2010
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1460975-7
SSG:
12
SSG:
25
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