Skip Navigation



Behavioral Ecology Advance Access published online on February 15, 2006
Behavioral Ecology, doi:10.1093/beheco/arj050
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Lay Summary
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
17/3/466    most recent
arj050v1
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 Pomfret, J. C.
Right arrow Articles by Knell, R. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Pomfret, J. C.
Right arrow Articles by Knell, R. J.
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
Received September 22, 2005
Revised December 20, 2005
Accepted January 17, 2006

Article

Immunity and the expression of a secondary sexual trait in a horned beetle

Joanne C. Pomfret 1 and Robert J. Knell 1 *

1 School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Robert J. Knell, E-mail: r.knell{at}qmul.ac.uk


  Abstract

Resource-based trade-offs are known to be important in determining investment in both sexual ornamentation and immunity in insects. Because of the strict resource limitation experienced during metamorphosis, we predict that if insects are trading off ornament size and immunity this should be most apparent immediately after eclosion and that the relationship between sexual ornament size and immunity should change with maturation feeding because of the changing patterns of resource availability during this process. We therefore present an investigation into the relationship between morphology, sex, and two measures of immune response (phenoloxidase [PO] activity and encapsulation ability) in the horned beetle Euoniticellus intermedius, immediately after eclosion and after maturation feeding. Both measures increased with maturation, with sex differences in PO activity becoming discernable after maturation feeding. PO activity was positively correlated with horn length in male beetles both on eclosion and after maturation feeding, and encapsulation ability was positively correlated with elytra length. We conclude that resource limitation in the pupating insect does have effects on immunity but that this resource limitation does not translate into a measurable trade-off between horn length and immunity. The correlation between horn length and PO activity may arise because both horn length and PO activity are correlated with the same elements of the animal's biology that allow some animals both to grow a long horn and to sustain a higher level of PO activity.

Keywords: immunity; insect; metamorphosis; sex differences; sexual selection; trade-offs.
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
 Behav EcolHome page
S. C. Cotter, M. Beveridge, and L. W. Simmons
Male morph predicts investment in larval immune function in the dung beetle, Onthophagus taurus
Behav. Ecol., March 1, 2008; 19(2): 331 - 337.
[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.