Skip Navigation


Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on December 13, 2008
Behavioral Ecology 2009 20(2):354-361; doi:10.1093/beheco/arn153
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Lay Summary
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
20/2/354    most recent
arn153v1
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 Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Caesar, S.
Right arrow Articles by Forsman, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Caesar, S.
Right arrow Articles by Forsman, A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. 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

Do polyandrous pygmy grasshopper females obtain fitness benefits for their offspring?

Sofia Caesar and Anders Forsman

School of Pure and Applied Natural Sciences, Kalmar University, SE-391 82 Kalmar, Sweden

Address correspondence to S. Caesar. E-mail: sofia.caesar{at}hik.se.


  Abstract

Explanations for polyandry in insects invoke material and genetic benefits that enhance female fitness via the production of more viable or more variable offspring. Here we use the color polymorphic pygmy grasshopper, Tetrix subulata, to evaluate effects of male quality, mate color morph resemblance (a proxy for compatibility), and polyandry on offspring performance. We experimentally mated females with different numbers and color morph combinations of males and reared offspring under either sun-exposed or shaded conditions using a split-brood design. We find a significant male identity effect on egg hatchability, consistent with the hypothesis that males vary in paternal quality. Offspring viability posthatching varied in a complex manner with solar regime, mating treatment, and parental resemblance. The effects of parental color morph resemblance on offspring performance suggest a potential role of compatibility and offspring variability. Monandrous females produced more viable offspring than polyandrous females (under shaded conditions) and we suggest as a hypothesis that the expected positive influence of polyandry on offspring performance may have been outweighed by more intense competition and antagonistic interactions among half-siblings. That an effect of mating treatment was evident under shaded but not under sun-exposed conditions suggests that great care is called for when making inferences from studies that show negative results.

Key words: genetic benefits, mate resemblance, polyandry, split-brood design, Tetrix subulata.

Received 17 January 2008; revised 10 November 2008; accepted 10 November 2008.


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




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.