Highlights•Mechanistic models incorporate knowledge of subprocesses to predict higher
level phenomena.•We identify key subprocesses for mechanistically predicting insect …

Highlights•Insect eggs span more than eight orders of magnitude in volume.•Insect egg
shapes vary in asymmetry, aspect ratio, and curvature.•The external surfaces of insect …

Over the course of evolution, organism size has diversified markedly. Changes in size are
thought to have occurred because of developmental, morphological and/or ecological …

Offspring size is a key functional trait that can affect all phases of the life history, from birth to
reproduction, and is common to all the Metazoa. Despite its ubiquity, reviews of this trait tend …

Size at the start of life reflects the initial per offspring parental investment—including both the
embryo and the nutrients supplied to it. Initial offspring size can vary substantially, both …

The diversity of insect eggs is astounding but still largely unexplained. Here, we apply
phylogenetic analyses to 208 species of stick and leaf insects, coupled with physiological …

Global warming and other climate change drivers have a significant impact on the life cycle
of insects which in turn affect their population dynamics and geographic distribution. Among …

Eggs of oviparous reptiles are ideal models for studying evolutionary patterns of embryonic
metabolism since they allow tracking of energy allocation during development. Analyzing …

The current survey was carried out to evaluate the effect of different nitrogen levels (0, 2.1,
3.0, 3.9 g∙ pot–1 nitrogen as urea 46%) on tomato fruit worm Helicoverpa armigera on six …

Although metamorphosis is widespread in the animal kingdom, several species have
evolved life-cycle modifications to avoid complete metamorphosis. Some species, for …