Reproductive Allocation from Reserves and Income in Butterfly Species with Differing Adult Diets

نویسنده

  • CAROL L. BOGGS
چکیده

Allocation of stored and incoming nutrients to reproduction determines an organism’s age-specific fecundity curve. In holometabolous insects, differences among species in the shape of the curve are correlated with differences in the potential importance of adult food to reproduction. I examined allocation patterns underlying this association. Specific changes throughout life in body mass and reproductive effort were predicted to result from use of stored vs. incoming nutrients for reproduction and other metabolic needs at each age. Data for three nymphalid butterfly species, Euphydryas editha, Speyeria mormonia, and Heliconius charitonius, were compared with the predictions. These three species differ in adult diet and fraction of oocytes mature at adult emergence (hence, potential for adult nutrients to be used to make eggs), with E. editha showing the least potential for use of adult nutrients in egg production and H. charitonius showing the greatest potential. For all three species, body mass declined with age, although nonlinearly for E. editha. This indicated that metabolic expenditures were greater than intake at all ages, and that a constant fraction of stored nutrients was allocated to reproduction and other metabolic uses at each age for E. editha. Reproductive effort also declined with age for all three species. The specific patterns seen suggested that incoming nutrients may be stored, to some extent, early in life and then used late in life by both S. mormonia and H. charitonius. The similarity between S. mormonia and H. charitonius is rather surprising, given the qualitative differences in adult diet and suggests either that qualitative age-specific allocation patterns for incoming vs. stored nutrients may be independent of adult diet quality, or that the observed patterns are constrained by phylogenetic relatedness of these two species.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Dynamics of Reproductive Allocation from Juvenile and Adult Feeding: Radiotracer Studies

Nutrients used in reproduction may come from adult feeding or reserves stored from the juvenile stage. The dynamics of allocation from these sources are predicted to differ among nutrient types, depending on the relative availability of each nutrient type from adult and juvenile feeding. Using radiotracer techniques, I examined reproductive allocation of glucose and amino acids from adult and j...

متن کامل

Resource allocation to testes in walnut flies and implications for reproductive strategy.

Testes size often predicts the winner during episodes of sperm competition. However, little is known about the source of nutrients allocated to testes development, or testes plasticity under varying nutrient availability. Among many holometabolous insects, metabolic resources can derive from the larval or adult diet. Distinguishing the source of nutrients allocated to testes can shed light on l...

متن کامل

Making eggs from nectar: the role of life history and dietary carbon turnover in butterfly reproductive resource allocation

The diets of many butterflies and moths change dramatically with development: from herbivory in the larvae to nectarivory in the adults. These diets are nutritionally distinct, and thus are likely to contribute differentially to egg manufacture. We examine the use of dietary resources in egg manufacture by four butterfly species with different patterns of oviposition and lifespan; three in the ...

متن کامل

Insights from stable isotopic tracers on reproductive allocation under stress.

Fecundity is affected by changes in the nutritional and energetic environment, as a result of changes in acquisition, assimilation, or allocation of macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients. Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen offer a window into the processes underlying these changes. In insects that feed on nectar as adults, carbon isotopes can be used to trace allocation of carbon to eggs from...

متن کامل

Effects of adult nutrition on female reproduction in a fruit-feeding butterfly: the role of fruit decay and dietary lipids.

It was generally believed that butterflies and other holometabolous insects rely primarily on reserves accumulated during the larval stage for reproduction. Recent studies, however, highlight the often fundamental importance of adult nutrition to realize the full reproductive potential. While the importance of carbohydrates is fairly well understood, the role of most other adult-derived substan...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 1999