Since David Lack first proposed that birds rear as many young as they can nourish, food limitation has been accepted as the primary explanation for variation in clutch size and other life-history traits in birds. The importance of food limitation in life-history variation, however, was recently questioned on theoretical grounds. Here, we show that clutch size differences between two populations...

1. Latitudinal variation in clutch sizes of birds is a well described, but poorly understood pattern. Many hypotheses have been proposed, but few have been experimentally tested, and none have been universally accepted by researchers. 2. The nest size hypothesis posits that higher nest predation in the tropics favours selection for smaller nests and thereby constrains clutch size by shrinking a...

The study of life history variation is central to the evolutionary theory. In many ectothermic lineages, including lizards, life history traits are plastic and relate to several sources of variation including body size, which is both a factor and a life history trait likely to modulate reproductive parameters. Larger species within a lineage, for example tend to be more fecund and have larger c...

Macrocyclops distinctus, Megacyclops viridis, and Mesocyclops pehpeiensis, which are common in rice fields during the summer season in Nagasaki, Japan, showed variable potentialities as biological control agents of larval Aedes albopictus, Culex tritaeniorhynchus, and Anopheles minimus in the laboratory. Macrocyclops distinctus and M. viridis, the largest copepod species, had fewer eggs within ...

The aim of the research was to investigate the effects of divergent selection on some production and clutch traits in Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica). Over 5 generations divergently selected two Japanese quail lines (HBW: High Body Weight and LBW: Low Body Weight) and control line (C) that derivate from a base random bred population were used in this study. Weight of first egg, age ...

Reproductive success in many avian populations declines throughout the breeding season. Two hypotheses have gained attention to explain such a decline: the ‘‘timing’’ hypothesis proposes that deteriorating food availability causes the decline in reproductive success (causal effect of breeding time), whereas the ‘‘quality’’ hypothesis proposes that individuals of lower phenotypic quality reprodu...

Negative density dependence of clutch size is a ubiquitous characteristic of avian populations and is partly due to within-individual phenotypic plasticity. Yet, very little is known about the extent to which individuals differ in their degree of phenotypic plasticity, whether such variation has a genetic basis and whether level of plasticity can thus evolve in response to selection. Using 18 y...

For over a half century numerous hypotheses have surfaced aimed at explaining a key life history trait, the evolution of clutch size in birds. A principal goal has been to explain why clutch size generally increases with latitude both within species and among closely related species. Most hypotheses have stressed food limitation, predation, or seasonality. I present a novel hypothesis to explai...

Female insects have a limited energy budget to invest in reproduction. Clutch size and egg size are two traits typically involved in energy budget trade-offs, and an optimum clutch size is generally predicted. This trade-off, however, is influenced by many factors including the probability of egg parasitism. We studied this possibility in the pine processionary moth (Thaumetopoea pityocampa), w...