Skip Navigation


Behavioral Ecology Advance Access first published online on June 11, 2004
This version published online on July 7, 2004
Behavioral Ecology, doi:10.1093/beheco/arh069
© 2004 by International Society for Behavioral Ecology
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
15/5/735    most recent
arh069v3
arh069v2
arh069v1
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 Moore, J. C.
Right arrow Articles by Greeff, J. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Moore, J. C.
Right arrow Articles by Greeff, J. M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Received July 8, 2003
Revised October 6, 2003
Accepted October 28, 2003

Male morphological variation and the determinants of body size in two Otiteselline fig wasps

J. C. Moore 1*, J. Pienaar 1, J. M. Greeff 1

1 Department of Genetics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, Republic of South Africa

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jamie.moore{at}ed.ac.uk.


  Abstract

The chalcid wasps (Hymenoptera) that develop in fig tree inflorescences (Ficus: Moraceae) have often been used to study alternative reproductive behaviors. However, recent work suggests that such behaviors are more complex than previously thought. We investigated this in Otitesella longicauda and O. rotunda. In addition to known dimorphisms in the two species (each have "religiosa" males that use their mandibles to fight for mates in the fig, and "digitata" males that disperse from the fig to mate), we found that religiosa males below species-specific body size switch points have relatively larger mandibles and are less sclerotized than those above. Thus, they are actually trimorphic. We suggest that the religiosa morph variation is linked to fighter/nonfighter alternative mating behaviors, with small (nonfighting) males having relatively larger mandibles because they also use them to pull females out of their galls before mating. Also, we investigated the determinants of wasp body size, and whether females (foundresses) adjust their offspring allocation strategies according to expected offspring size. We found that wasp size is larger in ovaries near the center of the fig, and more females and fewer religiosa males are laid in such ovaries than in those further away. This probably indicates that foundresses lay females when they are expected to be large because their fitness is more body size-dependent than that of religiosa males. We then discuss the implications of our findings for the study of alternative reproductive behaviors and foundress offspring allocation strategies.

Keywords: alternative reproductive behaviors; body size-dependent fitness effects; fig wasps; offspring allocation strategies.
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
 ScienceHome page
J. M. Rowland and D. J. Emlen
Two Thresholds, Three Male Forms Result in Facultative Male Trimorphism in Beetles
Science, February 6, 2009; 323(5915): 773 - 776.
[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.