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Background  Variation in body size is thought to be a major driver of a wide variety of ecological and evolutionary patterns, including changes in development, reproduction, and longevity. Additionally, drastic changes in natural context often have profound effects on multiple fitness-related traits.  Caenorhabditis inopinata  is a recently-discovered fig-associated nematode that is unusually large relative to other members of the genus, including the closely related model system  C. elegans . Here we test whether the dramatic increase in body size and shift in ecological context has led to correlated changes in key life history and developmental parameters within this species.    Results  Using four developmental milestones,  C. inopinata  was found to have a slower rate of development than  C. elegans  across a range of temperatures. Despite this,  C. inopinata  did not reveal any differences in adult lifespan from  C. elegans  after accounting for differences in developmental timing and reproductive mode.  C. inopinata  fecundity was generally lower than that of  C. elegans , but fitness improved under continuous-mating, consistent with sperm-limitation under gonochoristic (male/female) reproduction.  C. inopinata  also revealed greater fecundity and viability at higher temperatures.    Conclusion  Consistent with observations in other ectotherms, slower growth in  C. inopinata  indicates a potential trade-off between body size and developmental timing, whereas its unchanged lifespan suggests that longevity is largely uncoupled from its increase in body size. Additionally, temperature-dependent patterns of fitness in  C. inopinata  are consistent with its geographic origins in subtropical Okinawa. Overall, these results underscore the extent to which changes in ecological context and body size can shape life history traits.    Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (10.1186/s12862-019-1388-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A large close relative of C. elegans is slow-developing but not long-lived