The effect of female mating status on male offspring traits.
In haplodiploid insects, males develop from unfertilized eggs; consequently, unmated females can reproduce. In a patchy, highly structured population, where brothers compete for mates and the reproductive return through sons is lower, females should minimize the number of male offspring. Consequently, unmated females are likely to have a reduced fitness compared to mated females. Here, we tested the oviposition behaviour of the haplodiploid beetleCoccotrypes dactyliperda. In this species, the unmated female can mate with her son to produce daughters. We predicted that unmated females could increase their fitness by (1) producing only few and small sons sufficient for mother-son mating and (2) dispersing to a patch occupied by conspecific females in order to increase their or their sons' chance of mating. We demonstrate that (1) unmated females are common (23 % of all females), (2) they oviposit more frequently than mated females in occupied patches, (3) unmated females oviposit more eggs than mated females-this is in spite of the trade-offs, evident in this study, between the number of sons and the number of the mother's future offspring after mating, (4) unmated females have a higher proportion of dispersing sons, and (5) sons of unmated females are smaller than sons of mated females. We conclude that the incidence of unmated females in the structured populations ofC. dactyliperdais explained by plasticity in their oviposition behaviour. We discuss conditions where a high incidence of unmated females can persist as a successful strategy in structured populations.
Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Beer Sheva, 84105 Israel ; Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel ; School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UG UK.
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Gottlieb
Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
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Lubin
Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Beer Sheva, 84105 Israel ; Department of Entomology, Agricultural Research Organization, the Volcani Center, Bet-Dagan, Israel.
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Harari
Coccotrypes dactyliperda; Local mate competition; Male dispersal; Oviposition; Trade-off; Unmated females