Bergmann's rule says that homeotherm animals from higher altitudes and
latitudes, or bred at lower temperatures, tend to be bigger, and the
validity of this rule to most studied ectotherms was noted by D Atkinson,
(1994). R.P. Lane made preliminary observations on the effect of
temperature on the size of Lutzomyia longipalpis and CB Marcondes
(1997) observed that altitude and latitude also modify several
dimensions of L. intermedia s. s. Moreover, RP Lane and G Fritz
(1986) observed that females of Phlebotomus papatasi are bigger
than P. bergeroti females. However, the former occurs in lower
altitudes than the other one, and they concluded that this apparent
discordance from Bergmann's rule corroborates the distinction of these
species.
