Sex and size matter: ontogenetic patterns of nutrient content of aquatic insects

C, N, and P content were measured across the ontogeny of lotic aquatic insects representing a diversity of life-history characteristics. The relationship between individual mass and nutrient content was used to show ontogenetic patterns of nutrient content by species. Species analyzed for C and N content exhibited a quasihomeostatic pattern across ontogeny. Percent C and %N varied among taxa irrespective of ontogeny, with %C ranging from 47.4 to 56.2% and %N ranging from 9.6 to 11.6%. P content also varied by species but declined nonlinearly across ontogeny and was best represented by a power function. Percent P varied from >7% in 1ˢᵗ-instar Tabanus larvae to only 0.34% in adult male Ambrysus circumcinctus. Females had more P per unit mass than males in 6 of the 10 species that could be sexed. In the leptophlebiid mayflies, %P increased in mature female nymphs relative to the penultimate developmental class, whereas %P content of males continued to decline to eclosion. Maximum terminal mass by species was the main factor driving the magnitude of change in %P through their ontogeny. Small-bodied, rapidly growing species exhibited the sharpest decline in P content. Nonhomeostatic patterns in %P across ontogeny and between sexes has important implications for population- and community-level dynamics and ecosystem processes. First, small-bodied, high-%P taxa have faster growth rates than larger individuals, which supports one of the predictions of the growth-rate hypothesis (GRH). Second, elemental imbalance between consumers and their food changes across ontogeny, and therefore, nutrient recycling rate by a species changes with population age structure. Last, community structure may reflect nutrient availability in food such that enriched environments are more likely to be dominated by taxa with high growth rates and, thus, relatively high P demand.