Clutch size adjustment by a swallowtail butterfly
Clutch size adjustment by a swallowtail butterfly
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通过燕尾蝴蝶调节离合器尺寸
作者：
D. Pilson;M. Rausher
由于生活史特征，如繁殖时间表，生殖投资，和特定年龄的生存表现出很大的变化，在性质和个人健身密切相关，发展的理论生活史进化是一个主要的焦点进化生物学家1 -3。一个备受关注的生活史特征是窝卵数，即雌性在一轮繁殖中所产的卵数。对于寄生生物，如草食性昆虫和寄生虫，已经开发了两种模型，描述了影响离合器大小的行为的演变4，5。这些模型都做出了两个预测：（1）个体应该调整窝卵数量，以便在能够支持更多后代生长的宿主上放置更大的窝卵;（2）随着产卵间隔时间的增加，当宿主变得越来越稀少时，应该在给定质量的宿主上放置更大的窝卵。在这里，我们提出了这些预测的第一个实证检验，并表明，pipevine燕尾蝶，Battus philenor，调整其离合器的大小在响应主机质量和时间的变化，因为最后产卵。
Because life-history characters such as breeding schedule, reproductive investment, and age-specific survivorship exhibit great variation in nature and are closely linked to individual fitness, the development of a theory of life-history evolution is a major focus of evolutionary biologists1–3. One life-history trait that has received much attention is clutch size, the number of eggs laid by a female during a round of reproduction. For parasitic organisms such as herbivorous insects and parasitoids, two models have been developed which describe the evolution of behaviour influencing clutch size4,5. These models both make two predictions: (1) that individuals should adjust clutch size so that larger clutches are laid on hosts that can support the growth of more offspring, and (2) that as time between oviposition bouts increases, as would occur when hosts become rarer, larger clutches should be laid on hosts of a given quality. We present here the first empirical test of these predictions and show that the pipevine swallowtail butterfly, Battus philenor, adjusts its clutch size in response to variation in both host quality and time since last oviposition.