Data for: Phenotypic extremes or extreme phenotypes? On the use of large and small-bodied 'phenocopied' Drosophila melanogaster males in studies of sexual selection and conflict

Consequently, intra-sexual variation in size in this model species has been frequently explored in order to better understand how sexual selection and sexual conflict may operate and shape evolutionary trajectories.

However, measuring individual flies can often be logistically complicated and inefficient, which can result in limited sample sizes. Instead, many experiments use large and/or small body sizes that are created by manipulating the developmental conditions experienced during the larval stages, resulting in “phenocopied” flies whose phenotypes resemble what is seen at the extremes of a population’s size distribution. While this practice is fairly common, there has been remarkedly few direct tests to empirically compare the behaviour or performance of phenocopied flies to similarly-sized individuals that grew up under typical developmental conditions.