Body size of many animals varies with latitude: body size is either larger at higher latitudes (Bergmann's rule) or smaller at higher latitudes (converse Bergmann's rule). However, the causes underlying these patterns are poorly understood. Also, studies rarely explore how sexual size dimorphism varies with latitude. Here we investigate geographic variation in body size and sexual size dimorphism of the seed-feeding beetle Stator limbatus, collected from 95 locations along a 38 degrees range in latitude. We examine 14 variables to test whether clines in environmental factors are adequate to explain geographic patterns of body size. We found that body size and sexual size dimorphism of S. limbatus varied considerably with latitude; beetles were smaller but more dimorphic at lower latitudes. Body size was not correlated with a gradient in mean temperature, contrary to the commonly accepted hypothesis that clines are produced by latitudinal gradients in temperature. Instead, we found that three factors were adequate to explain the cline in body size: clinal variation in host plant seed size, moisture (humidity), and seasonality (variance in humidity, precipitation, and temperature). We also found that the cline in sexual size dimorphism was partially explainable by a gradient in moisture, though moisture alone was not sufficient to explain the cline. Other ecological or environmental variables must necessarily contribute to differences in selection on male versus female body size. The main implications of our study are that the sexes differ in the magnitude of clinal variation in body size, creating latitudinal variation in sexual size dimorphism, and that clines in body size of seed beetles are likely influenced by variation in host seed size, water availability, and seasonality.

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OF PAPER The paper discusses the relative importance of water power in its relation to transportation, as depending upon its cost and the cost of competing steam power.Proportion which " Cost of Fuel for Locomotives " in the country as a whole, in various sections, and in the case of a number of different railroads, bears to " Total Cost of Operation. "Effect of recent progress in art of producing electric power by steam upon water power values. Power and transportation development on navigable streams. Illustrations of the limit of investment in developing a water power, as fixed by cost of competing steam power.Comparative cost of canals and railroads. Illustrations of comparative speed and power consumption in railroad and canal operation.

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