Skip Navigation


Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on January 25, 2006
Behavioral Ecology 2006 17(3):345-352; doi:10.1093/beheco/arj034
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Lay Summary
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
17/3/345    most recent
arj034v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (11)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Shuker, D. M.
Right arrow Articles by West, S. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Shuker, D. M.
Right arrow Articles by West, S. A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Sex ratios under asymmetrical local mate competition in the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis

David M. Shukera, Ido Penb and Stuart A. Westa

a Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, U.K. and b Theoretical Biology, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies, University of Groningen, NL-9751NN, Haren, Netherlands

Address correspondence to D.M. Shuker. E-mail: david.shuker{at}ed.ac.uk.

Sex ratio theory has proved remarkably useful in testing the adaptive nature of animal behavior. A particularly productive area in this respect is Hamilton's theory of local mate competition (LMC), which has been extended in numerous directions to include greater biological realism, allowing more detailed tests in specific organisms. We have presented one such extension, termed asymmetrical LMC, which occurs when egg laying by females on a patch is asynchronous, and emerging males do not disperse, resulting in the extent of LMC on a patch varying over time. Our aim here is to test whether the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis responds to variation in the degree of asymmetrical LMC. Specifically, we show that females adjust their offspring sex ratios in response to (1) variation in the amount of asynchrony in emergence between broods on a patch and (2) the number and proportion of previously parasitized hosts on the patch. Our results provide qualitative support for the predictions of theory, suggesting new levels of complexity in the sex ratio behavior of this much-studied organism. However, our results do not always provide quantitative support for theory, suggesting further complexities that must be clarified.

Key words: adaptation, clutch size, constraints, host choice, sex allocation, superparasitism.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Proc R Soc BHome page
A. B. F. Ivens, D. M. Shuker, L. W. Beukeboom, and I. Pen
Host acceptance and sex allocation of Nasonia wasps in response to conspecifics and heterospecifics
Proc R Soc B, October 22, 2009; 276(1673): 3663 - 3669.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Behav EcolHome page
J. Abe, Y. Kamimura, and M. Shimada
Sex ratio schedules in a dynamic game: the effect of competitive asymmetry by male emergence order
Behav. Ecol., November 1, 2007; 18(6): 1106 - 1115.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.