Wolf U Blanckenhorn, Anthony F G Dixon, Daphne J Fairbairn, Matthias W Foellmer, Patricia Gibert, Kim van der Linde, Rudolf Meier, Sören Nylin, Scott Pitnick, Christopher Schoff, Martino Signorelli, Tiit Teder, Christer Wiklund
A prominent interspecific pattern of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is Rensch's rule, according to which male body size is more variable or evolutionarily divergent than female body size. Assuming equal growth rates of males and females, SSD would be entirely mediated, and Rensch's rule proximately caused, by sexual differences in development times, or sexual bimaturism (SBM), with the larger sex developing for a proportionately longer time. Only a subset of the seven arthropod groups investigated in this study exhibits Rensch's rule...
February 2007: American Naturalist