Body size correlates with several factors such as reproductive fitness, environmental changes, the quality and quantity of food during critical development stages, and the feeding season. For the Palearctic moths of the genus Thaumetopoea (Lepidoptera; Notodontidae), the larval development is crucial and differs between species according to their feeding season; larvae of the pine processionary moth Thaumetopoea pityocampa (Denis & Schiffermüller 1775) feed during winter while larvae of its congeneric cedar processionary moth Thaumetopoea bonjeani (Powell 1922) develop during summer in North Africa. This discrepancy in lifecycles leads to different reproductive traits such as egg batch length, number of eggs per batch, eggs protection mechanisms and female body size. According to Darwin's fecundity advantage hypothesis (1871), female body size should have a positive influence on reproductive fitness, since larger females supposedly have higher fecundity. The universal allometric scaling phenomenon rule proposed by Rensch (1950) predicts that the degree of sexual size dimorphism tends to decrease with the increase of female body size. Here, two morphometrical parameters that is, body size and scale size, estimated from body measurements of individuals of both species, feeding on the same host Atlantic cedar Cedrus atlantica (Manetti & Carrière 1855) (Pinales; Pinaceae) in Algeria were proposed. The aim was to find out traits that might rule the competition for food and space, in particularly fecundity and body size. Results of the present study highlight a female‐biased sexual size dimorphism in both species. The positive correlation between female body size and fecundity shown in this study weakly supports Darwin's hypothesis. Finally, the intrageneric test performed leads to conclude that Rensch's rule does not hold in the considered species.

中文翻译：

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体型是奇异果属繁殖力的一个很好的指标吗？两个属内的地中海森林落叶者讲述的故事

体型与几个因素相关，例如生殖健康、环境变化、关键发育阶段的食物质量和数量以及喂养季节。对于奇形目（鳞翅目；Notodontidae）属的古北飞蛾，幼虫的发育是至关重要的，并且根据它们的摄食季节而在物种之间有所不同；松林蛾 Thaumetopoea pityocampa (Denis & Schiffermüller 1775) 的幼虫在冬季觅食，而其同类雪松蛾 Thaumetopoea bonjeani (Powell 1922) 的幼虫则在北非夏季发育。生命周期的这种差异导致了不同的繁殖特性，例如蛋批次长度、每批次蛋的数量、蛋保护机制和雌性体型。根据达尔文的繁殖优势假说（1871），雌性体型应该对生殖健康产生积极影响，因为体型较大的雌性据说具有更高的繁殖力。Rensch (1950) 提出的通用异速缩放现象规则预测，随着女性体型的增加，性别大小二态性的程度趋于降低。在这里，提出了两个形态测量参数，即身体大小和尺度大小，根据两个物种个体的身体测量估计，以阿尔及利亚的同一宿主大西洋雪松 Cedrus atlantica (Manetti & Carrière 1855) (Pinales; Pinaceae) 为食。目的是找出可能支配食物和空间竞争的特征，特别是繁殖力和体型。本研究的结果突出了两个物种的雌性性别大小二态性。本研究中显示的女性体型与生育力之间的正相关弱支持达尔文的假设。最后，进行的属内测试得出的结论是 Rensch 规则在所考虑的物种中不成立。