Body size, wing area, and wing loading follow a pattern of trait conservatism in Drosophila
Jonathan A. Rader, Patrick W. Kelly, Gabriel A. Jimenez, Daniel Ricardo Matute
The paper measures wing loading in 30 Drosophila species under controlled conditions and finds it lacks phylogenetic signal, unlike body mass and wing area.
bioRxiv · Feb 13, 2026 · PreprintEvolutionary Biology