Evaluating intraspecific variation in insect trait analysis

Intraspecific variation plays important roles in ecology and evolution. Yet, information on how species and populations vary remains scarce, particularly for insects and regarding functional traits. This lack of knowledge can be problematic in trait-based ecology because traditional approaches assume negligible intraspecific variation, even for analyses that assess highly variable taxa. We measured 291 Arctic fritillary butterflies (Boloria chariclea) to assess the intraspecific variation in one population of this species, evaluating (i) how wingspan of Arctic fritillaries varies in relation to the other species of its community, and (ii) how well wingspan, a measure of body size, predicts weight, a measure of body mass. Wingspan of Arctic fritillaries varied between 2.62 and 4.07 cm, with the 95% interval range, including ∼33% (14/42) of the species in the community, and ∼30% (84/279) of the butterflies of Canada. The relationship between wingspan and weight was significant (βwingspan...