Title
Do female red flour beetles assess both current and future competition during oviposition?
Author(s)
Halliday, William D.;Slevan-Tremblay, Isabelle;Blouin-Demers, Gabriel
Published
2019
Publisher
Journal of Insect Behavior
Abstract
Female insects must assess multiple factors when laying eggs, including both abiotic and biotic conditions of the laying site. Competition may also play a crucial role in the oviposition decisions of females. Competition at oviposition sites may take two forms: current competition between adults for both food and access to sites for oviposition, and future competition between offspring that will hatch and develop at that site. Here, we test whether female red flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum) assess both current and future competition at oviposition sites with a laboratory experiment where we manipulated both the density (current competition) and sex ratio (future competition) of adults at potential oviposition sites. We counted the number of eggs laid in each site to assess oviposition decisions, and then let those eggs develop into adults to determine the fitness consequences of oviposition decisions (measured by the total number of adult offspring produced). Female red flour beetles responded to both density and sex ratio: per capita eggs laid decreased as density increased, but was higher when the sex ratio was male-biased. These oviposition decisions were reflected in the per capita number of adult offspring produced. We provide evidence that female red flour beetles do assess for both current and future competition in their oviposition decisions.
Keywords
fecundity;fitness;oviposition;trade-off;Tribolium castaneum
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PUB24833