Abstract
THE relative filamental surface area of the common British crayfish shows a tendency to decrease with increase in body size1. This seems to contradict the principle of similitude which states that the surface area of an animal is proportional to the square of its linear dimensions, whereas the volume (and the weight, for approximation) is proportional to the cube. Growth rates are known to differ in different organs of the same animal, and Huxley2 found quite empirically that organ to body relationship is better expressed by the equation: 
where G is the size of organ examined (in dimension or weight units), W is the size of whole body (in dimension or weight units) and b and α are constants.
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References
Curra, R. A., Ph.D. thesis, Univ. Edinburgh (1963).
Huxley, J. S., Nature, 114, 895 (1924).
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CURRA, R. A Case of Negative Allometry in Austropotamobius Gill Growth. Nature 201, 842–843 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/201842b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/201842b0
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