Kang Ning, Hu Hongying, Huang Zengqian, Luo Shungang, Guo Shuhan
College of Life Science and Technology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830049, China.
Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Biological Resources and Genetic Engineering, Urumqi 830046, China.
Insects. 2023 Jan 10;14(1):67. doi: 10.3390/insects14010067.
Body size is the most essential feature that significantly correlates with insects' longevity, fecundity, metabolic rate, and sex ratio. Numerous biogeographical rules have been proposed to illustrate the correlation between the body sizes of different taxa and corresponding geographical or environmental factors. Whether the minute and multifarious chalcids exhibit a similar geographical pattern is still little known. In this research, we analyzed morphological data from 2953 specimens worldwide, including the two most abundant and diverse taxa (Pteromalidae and Eulophidae), which are both composed of field-collected and BOLD system specimens. We examined forewing length as a surrogate of body size and analyzed the average size separately for males and females using two methods (species and assemblage-based method). To verify Bergmann's rule, we included temperature, precipitation, wind speed and solar radiation as explanatory variables in a generalized linear model to analyze the causes of the size variation. We found that there was an increasing trend in the body size of Pteromalidae and Eulophidae with altitude. The optimal Akaike information criterion (AIC) models showed that larger sizes are significantly negatively correlated with temperature and positively correlated with precipitation, and the possible reasons for this variation are discussed and analyzed.
体型是与昆虫寿命、繁殖力、代谢率和性别比例显著相关的最基本特征。人们已经提出了许多生物地理学规则来阐释不同分类群的体型与相应地理或环境因素之间的相关性。微小而多样的小蜂科昆虫是否呈现出类似的地理格局仍鲜为人知。在本研究中，我们分析了来自全球2953个标本的形态学数据，包括两个数量最多且种类多样的分类群（金小蜂科和姬小蜂科），这些标本既有野外采集的，也有来自生命条形码数据库（BOLD）系统的。我们将前翅长度作为体型的替代指标，并使用两种方法（基于物种和组合的方法）分别分析了雄性和雌性的平均体型。为了验证伯格曼法则，我们在广义线性模型中纳入温度、降水、风速和太阳辐射作为解释变量，以分析体型变化的原因。我们发现，金小蜂科和姬小蜂科的体型随海拔升高呈增加趋势。最优的赤池信息准则（AIC）模型表明，较大的体型与温度显著负相关，与降水显著正相关，并对这种变化的可能原因进行了讨论和分析。
