Data and R code for “The Cost of Growing Up Hungry: Sex-Dependent Effects of Larval Diet in Culex pipiens”

This study aims to determine (i) the larval food levels at which developmental stress becomes detectable in Culex pipiens and (ii) which morphological and life-history traits provide the most sensitive and consistent indicators of this stress in both males and females. Larvae of Culex pipiens were reared under five levels of food availability: 100%, 50%, 25%, 10%, and 5% of the ad libitum (ADL) condition. Four replicate tanks were established per treatment level, with 100 larvae per tank. A total of 2,000 larvae were reared (400 per treatment level). The following life-history traits were measured: - Larval survival (%): percentage of larvae reaching adulthood. - Development time (days): number of days from hatching to adult emergence. - Sex ratio: proportion of females among emerged adults. Individual mosquito data are provided in LNgLarva.txt (Supplementary file 1). Wing morphology was analyzed using geometric morphometrics. Twenty landmarks were digitized on each wing. Twenty-six individuals per treatment level and sex were analyzed, except at 5% ADL, where 19 females and 25 males with wings in suitable condition were available. Landmark coordinates for both left and right wings, including repeated digitizations used to estimate measurement error, are provided in FM_wing_morphology.txt (Supplementary file 2). Morphometric variables exported from MorphoJ and used in the subsequent R analyses are also provided. These include a dataset containing centroid size and Procrustes shape coordinates obtained from the right-wing landmarks (FM_right_dig1), and a dataset containing the individual fluctuating asymmetry variables obtained from the matching-symmetry analysis (LNg_symmetry) in MorphoJ. - Wing size: centroid size (CS), using the right wing. - Wing shape: Procrustes coordinates and Mahalanobis distances, using the right wing. - Fluctuating asymmetry (FA): FA scores for size and shape were obtained using a two-way Procrustes ANOVA with individual, side, and their interaction as effects. FA was estimated for size (CSasy: |ΔCS|, the absolute difference in centroid size between sides) and shape (asySHcomp: Procrustes distance derived from the individual × side component). An R Markdown file containing the R-based data processing, statistical analyses, and graphical visualization used in the manuscript is provided. The code is organized into sections corresponding to the analyses described in the manuscript and uses the datasets included in this repository.