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Exaggerated Trait Allometry, Compensation and Trade-Offs in the New Zealand Giraffe Weevil (Lasiorhynchus barbicornis)

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  • Christina J Painting
  • Gregory I Holwell

Abstract

Sexual selection has driven the evolution of exaggerated traits among diverse animal taxa. The production of exaggerated traits can come at a cost to other traits through trade-offs when resources allocated to trait development are limited. Alternatively some traits can be selected for in parallel to support or compensate for the cost of bearing the exaggerated trait. Male giraffe weevils (Lasiorhynchus barbicornis) display an extremely elongated rostrum used as a weapon during contests for mates. Here we characterise the scaling relationship between rostrum and body size and show that males have a steep positive allometry, but that the slope is non-linear due to a relative reduction in rostrum length for the largest males, suggesting a limitation in resource allocation or a diminishing requirement for large males to invest increasingly into larger rostra. We also measured testes, wings, antennae, fore- and hind-tibia size and found no evidence of a trade-off between these traits and rostrum length when comparing phenotypic correlations. However, the relative length of wings, antennae, fore- and hind-tibia all increased with relative rostrum length suggesting these traits may be under correlational selection. Increased investment in wing and leg length is therefore likely to compensate for the costs of flying with, and wielding the exaggerated rostrum of larger male giraffe weevils. These results provide a first step in identifying the potential for trait compensation and trades-offs, but are phenotypic correlations only and should be interpreted with care in the absence of breeding experiments.

Suggested Citation

  • Christina J Painting & Gregory I Holwell, 2013. "Exaggerated Trait Allometry, Compensation and Trade-Offs in the New Zealand Giraffe Weevil (Lasiorhynchus barbicornis)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-1, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0082467
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082467
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Clint D. Kelly, 2008. "Sperm investment in relation to weapon size in a male trimorphic insect?," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 19(5), pages 1018-1024.
    2. Roberto Munguía-Steyer & Bruno A. Buzatto & Glauco Machado, 2012. "Male dimorphism of a neotropical arachnid: harem size, sneaker opportunities, and gonadal investment," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(4), pages 827-835.
    3. Erin L. McCullough & Paul R. Weingarden & Douglas J. Emlen, 2012. "Costs of elaborate weapons in a rhinoceros beetle: how difficult is it to fly with a big horn?," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(5), pages 1042-1048.
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    Cited by:

    1. Gerad A Fox & Allen M Cooper & William K Hayes, 2015. "The Dilemma of Choosing a Reference Character for Measuring Sexual Size Dimorphism, Sexual Body Component Dimorphism, and Character Scaling: Cryptic Dimorphism and Allometry in the Scorpion Hadrurus a," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, March.
    2. Erin C Powell & Christina J Painting & Glauco Machado & Gregory I Holwell, 2023. "Juvenile leg autotomy predicts adult male morph in a New Zealand harvestman with weapon polymorphism," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 34(4), pages 613-620.
    3. Andrés Ramírez-Ponce & Gabriela Garfias-Lozano & Atilano Contreras-Ramos, 2017. "The nature of allometry in an exaggerated trait: The postocular flange in Platyneuromus Weele (Insecta: Megaloptera)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, February.

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