EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY

Eur. J. Entomol. 104 (4): 769-776, 2007 | DOI: 10.14411/eje.2007.098

Body weight distributions of central European Coleoptera

Werner ULRICH

Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Department of Animal Ecology, Gagarina 9, 87-100 Toruń; Poland;

Species number - body weight distributions are generally thought to be skewed to the right. While this pattern is well documented in vertebrates, comparative studies on species rich invertebrate taxa are still scarce. Here I show that the weight distributions of central European Coleoptera (based on 8257 species body weight data compiled from Freude et al., 1964-1994) are predominantly right skewed. Skewness and species richness per taxon were positively correlated. The number of modes of the body weight distributions was negatively correlated with species richness. 273 of the 558 genera had bimodal distributions. Species richness per genus did not significantly depend on mean genus body weight. In general the coleopteran size distributions differed from those of European Hymenoptera but were similar to the respective distributions of vertebrates. I conclude that we should be cautious when generalizing patterns found in one taxon.

Keywords: Beetles, body weight, size ratios, speciation

Received: October 18, 2006; Revised: April 11, 2007; Accepted: April 11, 2007; Published: October 15, 2007  Show citation