title: The population determines whether and how life-history traits vary between reproductive events in an insect with maternal care.
abstract: The last reproductive event of a female is often associated with major changes in terms of both maternal and offspring life-history traits. However, the nature of these changes and the importance of population-specific environmental constraints in shaping their expression are difficult to predict and, as a consequence, poorly understood. Here, we investigated whether and how life-history traits vary between reproductive events and whether this variation is population-dependent in the European earwig Forficula auricularia. In this insect species, females produce up to two clutches during their lifetime and express extensive forms of maternal care. We conducted a common garden experiment, in which we measured 11 life-history traits of the first and second clutches of 132 females originating from three populations. Our results showed that clutch size was higher and the level of care expressed towards juveniles lower in second as compared to the first clutches in all three populations. In contrast, we found a population-specific effect on whether and how the reproductive event shaped juvenile quality and a trade-off between egg developmental time and female weight at hatching. Overall, these findings emphasise that the last reproductive event of a female entails both positive and negative effects on various life-history traits of the female herself and her clutch of juveniles. Moreover, our study stresses the importance of population idiosyncrasies on the expression and nature of such cohort-specific effects.
authors.affiliation: Zoological Institute, Evolutionary Biology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ratz
authors.affiliation: Zoological Institute, Evolutionary Biology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Jos
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.affiliation: Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité ISYEB-UMR 7205 CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Paris-Sciences-Lettres, 75005, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Veuille
authors.affiliation: Zoological Institute, Evolutionary Biology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany. joel.meunier@univ-tours.fr.|Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l'Insecte, UMR 7261, CNRS, Université François-Rabelais de Tours, Tours, France. joel.meunier@univ-tours.fr.
authors.forename: Joël
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6893-2064
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meunier
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D052284:Clutch Size; D004777:Environment; D007313:Insecta; D012098:Reproduction
keywords: Family life; Insect; Parental care; Semelparity; Senescence; Terminal investment