Development time mediates the effect of larval diet on ageing and mating success of male antler flies in the wild

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1876. This is version 3 of this Preprint.

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Authors

Christopher Angell, Mathieu Oudin, Nicolas O. Rode, Brian Mautz, Russell Bonduriansky, Howard D Rundle

Abstract

High-quality developmental environments often improve individual performance into adulthood, but allocating toward early-life traits, such as growth, development rate, and reproduction, may lead to trade-offs with late life performance. It is therefore uncertain how a rich developmental environment will affect the ageing process (senescence), particularly in wild insects. To investigate the effects of early-life environmental quality on insect life-history traits, including senescence, we reared larval antler flies (Protopiophila litigata) on four diets of varying nutrient concentration, then recorded survival and mating success of adult males released in the wild. Declining diet quality was associated with slower development, but had no effect on other life-history traits once development time was accounted for. Fast developing males were larger and lived longer, but experienced more rapid senescence in survival and lower average mating rate compared to slow developers. Ultimately, larval diet, development time, and body size did not predict lifetime mating success. Thus, a rich environment led to a mixture of apparent benefits and costs, mediated by development time. Our results indicate that “silver spoon” effects can be complex and that development time mediates the response of adult life-history traits to early-life environmental quality.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/68hcs

Subjects

Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Population Biology

Keywords

Longevity, mark-recapture, Protopiophila litigata, Senescence, Silver spoon, trade-off

Dates

Published: 2020-03-16 18:51

Last Updated: 2020-11-04 10:45

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License

CC-By Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International