Extreme weapons across many insect species stunt eyes, wings, antennae, and testes

Evidence

In dung beetles, we now realize, horn growth stunts the growth of eyes, wings, antennae, genitalia, and testes, depending on the species. In exchange for fighting ability males suffer impaired visual acuity, flying agility, smell, and success in copulation—hefty prices for producing weapons—and similar trade-offs curtail a variety of species with extreme weapons. For example, giant rhinoceros beetles with massive horns have proportionately smaller wings, as do stag beetles with the most distended mandibles. Even male stalk-eyed flies face impaired testes growth when they invest in large weapons. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 297

Categorization

• XREF: The weapons-buy-fitness-at-a-cost pattern parallels the expensive signaling and handicap themes relevant to questions about why organisms invest in extremes. — connects to: Agility constraints suppress heavy weapons in airborne insect fighters — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 729; Human armies and social insects solved the same weapon trade-off by role specialization — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 133; Weaponized bee males cannot fly and usually die dispersing between nests — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 763

Related

• Beetle horns can be impressively large yet nearly cost-free to produce and use (similarity 0.84)
• Agility constraints suppress heavy weapons in airborne insect fighters (similarity 0.84)
• Weapon growth is far more resource-sensitive than other body parts (similarity 0.83)
• Variation in animal weapon size is explainable by species ecology and behavior. (similarity 0.82)
• Dung beetles offer the ideal study system for extreme weapon evolution. (similarity 0.82)
• Horn growth is nine times more nutrition-sensitive than genitalia in beetles (similarity 0.82)
• Metamorphosing insects pay weapon growth costs that vertebrates avoid. (similarity 0.82)
• Weapons in arms races get so big they impair other bodily functions (similarity 0.81)
• Competition for reproduction drives evolution of nature’s biggest weapons (similarity 0.81)
• Weaponized bee males cannot fly and usually die dispersing between nests (similarity 0.81)
• Extreme weapons evolved independently across roughly three thousand species (similarity 0.80)
• Growing large weapons diverts resources and stunts other body parts (similarity 0.80)
• Scarcity of suitable feeding sites drives weapon evolution in harlequin beetles (similarity 0.79)
• Beetle horns can reach 30 percent of male body weight (similarity 0.79)
• Mobile resources deny weapons a cost-effective performance advantage (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Agility constraints suppress heavy weapons in airborne insect fighters #complicates (0.65) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 729
• Human armies and social insects solved the same weapon trade-off by role specialization #expands (0.60) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 133