Measuring Intraspecific Variation in Flight-Related Morphology of Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus): Which Sex Has the Best Flying Gear?

Table 1

Summary of morphological characteristics of male () and female () monarch butterflies from this study. All monarchs were reared in captivity under uniform conditions and fed greenhouse-grown milkweed. The table shows means with standard deviations in parentheses. Asterisks indicate significant differences between sexes based on Student’s -tests.

Variable	Males	Females	Both sexes
Total wing area (mm^2)	3387 (222)	3284 (212)	3336 (222)
Forewing area (mm^2)	856 (54)	835 (55)	846 (55)
Monarch live wt (mg)	588 (51)	531 (49)	560 (57)
Monarch dry wt (mg)	162 ()	154 ()	158 ()
Thorax dry wt (mg)	57 ()	53 ()	55 ()
Relative thorax size (%)	35.4 (1)	34.5 ()	34.9 ()
Abdomen dry wt (mg)	48 ()	46 ()	47 ()
One forewing dry wt (mg)	12 ()	12 ()	12 ()
Wing loading (mg/mm^2)	.173 (.009)	.161 (.009)	.168 (.011)
Relative forewing wt (mg/mm^2)	.0136 (.0009)	.0142 (.0007)	.0139 (.0009)

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