ArticleNature2019
Insect egg size and shape evolve with ecology but not developmental rate.
Article in Nature, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed.
- Shared candidate genes associated with variation in egg size in cold-adapted and artificially selected Drosophila melanogaster.Developmental biology · 2026Article
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- Negative allometry of egg size among 29 species of drosophilid flies.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Navigating the Semantic Labyrinth of "Sex" in the Study of Reproductive Trait Evolution.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- Evolution and Development of Insect Metamorphosis: A Case of Genetic Accommodation?Results and problems in cell differentiation · 2026Review
- Behavioral and physiological responses of the aphelinid parasitoid, Encarsia formosa, to interspecific competitors.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Host-specific leaf-mining behaviour of holometabolous insect larvae in the early Permian.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Embryogenesis in Myrmicine Ants Combines Features of Short Germ-Band Development With a Progressive Mode of Segmentation.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2025Article
- Topological interactions drive the first fate decision in theNature physics · 2025Article
- Gap junctions allow transfer of metabolites between germ cells and somatic cells to promote germ cell growth in the Drosophila ovary.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Host size overrides maternal effects on the development of a secondary hyperparasitoid wasp.Journal of insect science (Online) · 2025Article
- Rapid growth and the evolution of complete metamorphosis in insects.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Modular control of vertebrate axis segmentation in time and space.The EMBO journal · 2024Article
- Coevolution between eggs and sperm of insects.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Rapid response of fly populations to gene dosage across development and generations.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Egg Morphology of Two Neotropical Dragonflies: Micrathyria hesperis and Miathyria simplex (Odonata: Libellulidae).Neotropical entomology · 2023Article
- A high throughput method for egg size measurement in Drosophila.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- A critical role for ecdysone response genes in regulating egg production in adult female Rhodnius prolixus.PloS one · 2023Article
- Corticotropin-releasing factor-like diuretic hormone acts as a gonad-inhibiting hormone in adult female,Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- Fertilization mode differentially impacts the evolution of vertebrate sperm components.Nature communications · 2022Article
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4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Over the course of evolution, organism size has diversified markedly. Changes in size are thought to have occurred because of developmental, morphological and/or ecological pressures. To perform phylogenetic tests of the potential effects of these pressures, here we generated a dataset of more than ten thousand descriptions of insect eggs, and combined these with genetic and life-history datasets. We show that, across eight orders of magnitude of variation in egg volume, the relationship between size and shape itself evolves, such that previously predicted global patterns of scaling do not adequately explain the diversity in egg shapes. We show that egg size is not correlated with developmental rate and that, for many insects, egg size is not correlated with adult body size. Instead, we find that the evolution of parasitoidism and aquatic oviposition help to explain the diversification in the size and shape of insect eggs. Our study suggests that where eggs are laid, rather than universal allometric constants, underlies the evolution of insect egg size and shape.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.