title: Pollinating fig wasp Ceratosolen solmsi adjusts the offspring sex ratio to other foundresses.
abstract: Local mate competition theory predicts that offspring sex ratio in pollinating fig wasps is female-biased when there is only one foundress, and increased foundress density results in increased offspring sex ratio. Information of other foundresses and clutch size have been suggested to be the main proximate explanations for sex ratio adjustment under local mate competition. Our focus was to show the mechanism of sex ratio adjustment in a pollinating fig wasp, Ceratosolen solmsi Mayr, an obligate pollinator of the functionally dioecious fig, Ficus hispida Linn., with controlled experiments in the field. First, we obtained offspring from one pollinator and offspring at different oviposition sequences, and found that offspring sex ratio decreased with clutch size, and pollinators produced most of their male offspring at the start of bouts, followed by mostly females. Second, we found that offspring sex ratio increased with foundress density, and pollinators did adjust their offspring sex ratio to other females in the oviposition patches. We suggest that when oviposition sites are not limited, pollinators will mainly adjust their offspring sex ratio to other foundresses independent of clutch size changes, whereas adjusting clutch size may be used to adjust sex ratio when oviposition sites are limited.
authors: Key Laboratory of Biotic Environment and Ecological Safety in Anhui Province, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui Province, China. haoyuanhu@126.com
authors: Hao-Yuan
authors: HY
authors: Hu
authors: Zhong-Zheng
authors: ZZ
authors: Chen
authors: Zi-Feng
authors: ZF
authors: Jiang
authors: Da-Wei
authors: DW
authors: Huang
authors: Li-Ming
authors: LM
authors: Niu
authors: Yue-Guan
authors: YG
authors: Fu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D030681:Ficus; D006927:Hymenoptera / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010058:Oviposition; D054817:Pollination; D012744:Sex Ratio
keywords: behavior; co-evolution; local mate competition; mutualism; pollinating fig wasp; sex ratio adjustment