Life History Trade‐Offs in Gargaphia Solani (Hemiptera: Tingidae): The Cost of Reproduction
1982
Tallamy, Douglas W. | Denno, Robert F.
In the lace bug Gargaphia solani, the physiological costs of allocating energy to parental care at one time were measured in terms of females' subsequent abilities to survive to and reproduce at a later time. In the present of excess resources, three levels of energy expenditure were compared. (1) To prevent females from spending any energy on parental care, eggs were removed as they were laid. (2) Females were permitted to guard their first egg mass only until it hatched. (3) Females were allowed to rear their first clutch through maturation. The results suggest that there is a trade—off between energy used for maintenance and the energy used for reproduction. Increased egg production in young adults resulted in significantly decreased abilities to survive. Furthermore, there was a clear and significant trade—off between time invested in maternal care in G. solani and subsequent abilities to reproduce. Compared to females that were prevented from mothering, there was a significant decrease in subsequent fecundity and clutch number when parental care was extended to eggs and further significant decreases when the first clutch was reared to maturity. The adaptive value of maternal behavior in light of the potential costs to fitness is discussed.
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