Predicting movement speed of beetles from body size and temperature.

ABSTRACT: Movement facilitates and alters species interactions, the resulting food web structures, species distribution patterns, community structures and survival of populations and communities. In the light of global change, it is crucial to gain a general understanding of how movement depends on traits and environmental conditions. Although insects and notably Coleoptera represent the largest and a functionally important taxonomic group, we still know little about their general movement capacities and how they respond to warming. Here, we measured the exploratory speed of 125 individuals of eight carabid beetle species across different temperatures and body masses using automated image-based tracking. The resulting data revealed a power-law scaling relationship of average movement speed with body

SUBMITTER: Terlau JF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10189998 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature