DOI: 10.5061/dryad.bk3j9kdnw
title: Data from: Refining estimates of dry body weight from linear measurements in adult moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera)

description: The dry body weight of adult male Lepidoptera was estimated from thirteen
 linear measurements of the wings and body using multivariate regression
 techniques. A dataset comprising information from 2,645 species was used,
 significantly increasing the sample size with respect to a similar former
 approach. Based on the logarithmically transformed values of dry body
 weight and several linear measurements, the best single predictors for
 body weight are body length, thorax length, and head width, none of which
 is among the most popular descriptors of size in this insect order
 (namely, forewing length and wingspan). The results show that combinations
 of several linear measurements lead to the most precise estimates of dry
 body weight. More simple models, e.g., based on wing length or wingspan
 and body length, may provide reasonable but suboptimal approaches.
 Variance partitioning of the regression residuals indicated that most of
 the non-explained variance is attributable to morphology rather than to
 phylogeny, so overall, the results suggest that the best models may be
 stable and liable for prediction except for unusual morphologies.
 Alternative approaches such as a taxon-by-taxon approach or ANCOVA-based
 methods were tested, and the results -and problems involved- are
 discussed. The potential relevance of co-linearity is addressed to. Based
 on a limited number of species, the author attempted to estimate the
 female to male weight relation (which happened to be nearly isometric), as
 well as the percent water content (38% overall).
description: # Refining estimates of dry body weight from linear measurements in adult
 moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera)
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bk3j9kdnw](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bk3j9kdnw) ## Description of the data and file structure ### Files and variables #### File: LEPSIZE2024.csv **Description:** Dry body weights and linear measurements from a representative sample of male Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) from different countries, intended to be used to design a regression model for estimating the dry body weight for the male sex of insects from this order. The sample consists of mean data from 2645 species derived from 5341 individuals.  Features of the file: Text file, CSV type, first row column headings, columns separated by commas (,), dots (.) for decimal points, codification UTF8. Contains 20 columns. The first 15 columns are the species code and mean data, the remaining five contain the sample data. The columns SPECIES and LABEL_DATA are text delimited by (“) and contain commas (,), hyphens (-), question marks (?), and other orthographic symbols. ##### Variables * SP_CODE: The species code, and an arbitrary code identifying each species in this table (A001 to ZL013). - DBw: The dry body weight, in mg. The linear measurements were made on collection specimens of Lepidoptera, spread specimens of the male sex. * HL: Head length (mm) measured dorsally. - Hw: Head width (mm), the distance between the outermost points of the eyes. * TL: Thorax length (mm). - Tw: Thorax width (mm), measured between the insertion points of the two forewings. * Al: Abdomen length (mm). - Aw: Abdomen width (mm), measured at the midpoint of thorax length. * FWl: Forewing length (mm), from the wing base to the apex. - FWw: Forewing width (mm), along the line perpendicular to FWl and crossing through its midpoint. * HWl: Hindwing length (mm), from the basis of the wing to the most distant point of its edge. - HWw: Hindwing width (mm), the width of the wing measured on the line perpendicular to the line representing HWl, at its middle point. * Wsp1: Wingspan 1 (in mm), the distance between the tips of the two forewings in the spread specimen. - Wsp2: Wingspan 2 (mm), the sum of (2 x FWL) plus Tw, ideally representing the maximum distance between the tips of the two forewings during flight in a living individual. * Bl: Body length (mm), from the most anterior point of the head (excluding the head appendages) and the end of the abdomen, in dorsal view. - n: Sample size, the number of individuals from which each species' mean was obtained. * VOUCHER_NR: The individual number/s originally given to each specimen and kept as a specimen label. - FAMILY: Family to which the species is ascribed. * SPECIES: The species name, when pertinent, including the authorship of the binomen. Full species names are stated only when identification has been reasonably corroborated. - LABEL_DATA: The label data, unless unknown: includes geographic location, date, and collector (the information may have been edited to some extent; the data stated may not reproduce the original label details literally). ## Code/software Any software enabled to read text* csv format ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * None Data was derived from the following sources: * None (original data)