Data for: Plasticity in mosquito size and thermal tolerance across a latitudinal climate gradient

Variations in heat tolerance among populations can determine whether a species can cope with ongoing climate change. Such variation may be especially important for ectotherms whose body temperatures, and consequently, physiological processes, are regulated by external conditions. Additionally, differences in body size are often associated with latitudinal clines, thought to be driven by climate gradients. While studies have begun to explore variation in body size and heat tolerance within species, our understanding of these patterns across large spatial scales, particularly regarding the roles of plasticity and genetic differences, remains incomplete. Here, we examine body size, as measured by wing length, and thermal tolerance, as measured by the time to immobilization at high temperatures (“thermal knockdown”), in populations of the mosquito Aedes sierrensis collected from across a large latitudinal climate gradient spanning 1300 km (34-44 °N). We find that mosquitoes collected from lower latitudes and warmer climates were more tolerant of high temperatures than those collected from higher latitudes and colder climates. Moreover, body size increased with latitude and decreased with temperature, a pattern consistent with James’ rule, which appears to be a result of plasticity rather than genetic variation. Our results suggest that warmer environments produce smaller and more thermally tolerant populations.

Methods
This data on body size and thermal tolerance was collected by measuring the wing length and knockdown time of 13 populations of Aedes sierrensis across the Pacific Coast of North America. We also analyze a subset of the data from another experiment of 9 populations of laboratory-reared Aedes sierrensis from Couper et al. 2024 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2457.