Early-life effects on body size in each sex interact to determine reproductive success in the burying beetleNicrophorus vespilloides
Early-life effects on body size in each sex interact to determine reproductive success in the burying beetleNicrophorus vespilloides
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DOI：
10.1111/jeb.13711
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发表时间：
2020-10-18
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Kilner, Rebecca M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bladon, Eleanor K.;English, Sinead;Kilner, Rebecca M.
早期生活条件已被证明对动物的身体大小和繁殖力有着深远的影响。然而，很少有人知道如何早期生活对生育力的影响在每一个性别相互作用，以确定生殖成功。我们用埋甲虫的实验来分析这个问题。埋葬虫在生命早期所经历的营养条件是两性成年体型的关键决定因素，而成年体型又反过来影响雄性的生殖策略。在以前的工作中，我们表明，较小的男性比较大的男性更有效地刺激处女女性生殖力。在这项研究中，我们通过限制在早期发育中获得食物来操纵男性和女性的身体大小。然后，我们进行了繁殖试验，其中小型和大型女性依次与小型和大型男性交配，然后允许在没有父亲照顾的情况下抚养后代。我们测试了大的女性，这是潜在的更多产的，产下更多的鸡蛋时，与小男性交配。我们没有发现任何证据支持这一预测。相反，我们只检测到一个弱的非显着趋势的预测方向和产生的幼虫数量没有等效的趋势。然而，我们确实发现，当幼虫的母亲是大的，并首先与一个小的男性交配时，幼虫在发育结束时获得了更大的质量。我们认为，大的女性可能已经演变的对策，防止剥削小生育刺激男性，包括部分子相食。通过在繁殖过程中吃掉多余的幼虫，体型较大的雌性会留下更多的腐肉供后代食用。这可以解释为什么它们存活的幼虫在完成发育时能够达到更大的质量。
Early-life conditions have been shown to have a profound effect on an animal's body size and fecundity across diverse taxa. However, less is known about how early-life effects on fecundity within each sex interact to determine reproductive success. We used experiments with burying beetlesNicrophorus vespilloidesto analyse this problem. The nutritional conditions experienced by burying beetles in early life are a key determinant of adult body size in both sexes, and adult body size in turn influences male reproductive tactics. In previous work, we showed that smaller males are more effective than larger males at stimulating virgin female fecundity. In this study, we manipulated male and female body size by restricting access to food in early development. We then conducted breeding assays, in which small and large females were mated sequentially with small and large males, and then allowed to raise offspring without paternal care. We tested whether large females, which are potentially more fecund, laid even more eggs when mated with small males. We found no evidence to support this prediction. Instead, we detected only a weak non-significant trend in the predicted direction and no equivalent trend in the number of larvae produced. However, we did find that larvae attained a greater mass by the end of development when their mother was large and mated with a small male first. We suggest that large females might have evolved counter-measures that prevent exploitation by small fecundity-stimulating males, including partial filial cannibalism. By eating surplus larvae during reproduction, larger females would leave more of the carrion for their offspring to consume. This could explain why their surviving larvae are able to attain a greater mass by the time they complete their development.