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Changes in Relative Size of Organs that Accompany Decrease in Body Size

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At the Size Limit - Effects of Miniaturization in Insects

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Abstract

Insects are very convenient for studying the scaling of organs and tissues which is associated with extreme miniaturization: first, they have a huge range of body sizes (the largest is more than 2000 times as long as the smallest); second, the smallest insects are comparable in size to unicellular organisms but retain high morphological complexity. Most insect organs display a huge potential for scaling and for retaining their organization and sometimes even their constant relative volume in spite of their size decreasing to only a small fraction of its initial value. By contrast, the relative volume of the reproductive and nervous systems increases by a considerable factor as body size decreases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

    Alexey A. Polilov

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Correspondence to Alexey A. Polilov .

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Polilov, A.A. (2016). Changes in Relative Size of Organs that Accompany Decrease in Body Size. In: At the Size Limit - Effects of Miniaturization in Insects. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39499-2_10

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