A Test of Rensch’s Rule in Greater Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) with Female-Biased Sexual Size Dimorphism
نویسندگان
چکیده
Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is widespread within the animal kingdom. Rensch's rule describes a relationship between SSD and body size: SSD increases with body size when males are the larger sex, and decreases with body size when females are the larger sex. Rensch's rule is well supported for taxa that exhibit male-biased SSD but patterns of allometry among taxa with female-biased size dimorphism are mixed, there is evidence both for and against the rule. Furthermore, most studies have investigated Rensch's rule across a variety of taxa; but among-population studies supporting Rensch's rule are lacking, especially in taxa that display only slight SSD. Here, we tested whether patterns of intraspecific variation in SSD in greater horseshoe bats conform to Rensch's rule, and evaluated the contribution of latitude to Rensch's rule. Our results showed SSD was consistently female-biased in greater horseshoe bats, although female body size was only slightly larger than male body size. The slope of major axis regression of log10 (male) on log10 (female) was significantly different from 1. Forearm length for both sexes of greater horseshoe bats was significantly negatively correlated with latitude, and males displayed a slightly but nonsignificant steeper latitudinal cline in body size than females. We suggest that variation in patterns of SSD among greater horseshoe bat populations is consistent with Rensch's rule indicating that males were the more variable sex. Males did not have a steeper body size-latitude relationship than females suggesting that sex-specific latitudinal variation in body size may not be an important contributing factor to Rensch's rule. Future research on greater horseshoe bats might best focus on more comprehensive mechanisms driving the pattern of female-biased SSD variation.
منابع مشابه
Patterns of sexual size dimorphism in horseshoe bats: Testing Rensch’s rule and potential causes
Rensch's rule, stating that sexual size dimorphism (SSD) becomes more evident and male-biased with increasing body size, has been well supported for taxa that exhibit male-biased SSD. Bats, primarily having female-biased SSD, have so far been tested for whether SSD allometry conforms to Rensch's rule in only three studies. However, these studies did not consider phylogeny, and thus the mechanis...
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