Study on Year-round Correlation between Mass and Copulation Duration in Forest Millipedes

Abstract

Correlates of diplopod size include diet, copulation duration, energy expense of copulation, oxygen consumption, precipitation, sex, and temperature. Sexual Size Dimorphism (SSD) in the diplopod genus Centrobolus has a positive correlation with body size and copulation duration. The objective of this study was to determine if mass correlated to copulation duration for measurements taken across one year. Intraspecific variation in mass was calculated in forest millipedes and correlated with copulation duration (R²=0.68, d.f.=7, p=0.01). Interspecific variation in mass was calculated in forest millipede species and correlated with copulation duration (R=0.6711, R²=0.4504, p=0.144473, n= 3, 3).