Are fluctuating asymmetry studies adequately sampled? Implications of a new model for size distribution.

Previous work on fluctuating asymmetry (FA) has highlighted its controversial relationship with environmental stress and genetic architecture. While size-based measures of FA have been assumed to have half-normal distributions within populations, studies of model developmental mechanisms have suggested other plausible distributions for FA. We investigated the distribution of FA in large empirical data sets of wing shape and wing size asymmetry …