Data from: Are weapon allometries steeper in major or minor males? A meta-analysis
Data files
Sep 05, 2024 version files 61.32 KB
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Calculating_Hedges_g.R
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Compiling_data.xlsx
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meta_code.R
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meta_data.csv
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README.md
Abstract
Competition for mates can drive the evolution of exaggerated weaponry and male dimorphism associated with alternative reproductive tactics. In terrestrial arthropods, male dimorphism is often detected as non-linear allometries, where the scaling relationship between weapon size and body size differs in intercept and/or slope between morphs. Understanding the patterns of non-linear allometries is important as it can provide insights into threshold evolution and the strength of selection experienced by each morph. Numerous studies in male-dimorphic arthropods have reported that allometric slopes of weapons are shallower in large “major” males compared to small “minor” males. Because this pattern is common among beetles that undergo complete metamorphosis (holometabolous), researchers have hypothesized that the slope change reflects resource depletion during pupal development. However, no comprehensive survey has examined the generality of this trend. We systematically searched the literature for reports of weapon allometries in male dimorphic species and conducted a phylogenetically controlled meta-analysis to explore the factors influencing the difference in slopes between morphs. Our search identified 59 effect sizes from 19 studies, 50 species, and 5 orders of terrestrial arthropods. We found strong evidence that metamorphosis type influences the patterns of weapon allometries. Slopes were significantly steeper in minor males compared to major males in holometabolous species, but there was no difference in slopes between morphs in hemimetabolous species (i.e., those that undergo incomplete or no metamorphosis). These results support the hypothesis that holometabolous species face a resource ceiling during pupal development that limits the exaggeration of weapon size.
README: Are weapon allometries steeper in major or minor males? A meta-analysis
The dataset contains two Excel files and 2 R files.
Data Contents:
meta_data.csv is the complete dataset used in the meta-regression analyses
meta_code.R includes all R code used for the meta-regression analyses and production of figures
Compiling_data.xlsx reports the raw data extracted from each study used to calculate effect sizes (Hedges' g)
Calculating Hedges g.R reports the R code used for calculating effect sizes based on the compiled data
Key to datasets:
The meta_data.csv file has the following columns:
Citation: Author and year of the study included in the meta-analysis
Metamorphosis: Categorial variable indicating the type of metamorphosis of the study organism (holometabolous = complete metamorphosis; hemimetabolous = incomplete or no metamorphosis)
Order: Taxonomic rank of the study organism
Family: Taxonomic rank of the study organism
rotl_spp: Species name of the study organism, as written in the Open Tree of Life (OTL) database. If the original species was not included in the OTL database, a substitution was found from the same genus or family.
Species: Species name of the study organism, as written in the paper.
Weapon: Type of weapon measured
g: Hedges’ g, a standardized measure of effect size
Lower CI: Lower 95% confidence interval of Hedges’ g value
Upper CI: Upper 95% confidence interval of Hedges’ g value
var.g: variance of Hedges’ g
log_Major_Weapon: log average weapon size of major males in study organism, used to calculate index of weapon exaggeration
log_Major_Body: log average body size of major males in study organism, used to calculate index of weapon exaggeration
Has_weapon: Categorial variable (Y or N) indicating whether the study organism has weapon size data and could be included in the analysis on weapon exaggeration
Year: Publication year of study included in the analysis
Breakpoint: Statistical method used by the study authors to separate male morphs (Body = body size breakpoint; Weapon = weapon size breakpoint; Ratio = breakpoint identified by inspecting frequency histogram of weapon to body size ratios; Mixture = morphs separated using cluster analysis or finite mixture models).
Study: Identifier for each unique study
Observation: Identifier for each unique observation
The Compiling_data.xlsx file has multiple pages with the following columns:
Citation: Author and year of the study included in the meta-analysis
Species: Species name of the study organism, as written in the paper.
Weapon: Type of weapon measured
Minor/Major: Male morph for reported allometric data
Mean: Average allometric slope for the given morph and species
Lower CI: Lower 95% confidence interval of estimated allometric slope for the given morph and species
Upper CI: Upper 95% confidence interval of estimated allometric slope for the given morph and species
N: Sample size of the given morph and species
SD: Standard deviation of estimated allometric slope for the given morph and species
SE: Standard error of estimated allometric slope for the given morph and species