Length-Weight Regressions in Tropical and Temperate Forest-Understory Insects

Powers of the length-weight relation W = alb for overall and taxon-specific regressions of forest-understory insects are almost always less than 3 and frequently substantially so. Tropical insects usually have smaller powers than do temperate ones. The deviation from 3 is explained as a systematic tendency for longer insects to be thinner, a tendency that is apparently more pronounced in the tropics. Workers who use length-weight equations to estimate overall biomass are cautioned not to lump insects having markedly different body proportions into the same regression.