Sons from virgin mothers produce more daughters in a haplodiploid mite

Abstract

Population size can be very small in the newly invaded/introduced site or front edge of population expansion where mates are difficult to find. This scenario can lead to extinction of a local population in many animal species. However, when it happens to a haplodiploid animal, individual virgin females may adjust their strategies to produce sons of greater reproductive success such as higher mating success and fertility, which may help increase the chance of establishment. Here we investigated how maternal mating status affected sons’ reproductive success in a haplodiploid spider mite, Tetranychus ludeni Zacher, a cosmopolitan pest of many crops. We show that virgin females laid significantly larger eggs than mated females, giving rise to larger deutonymphs and adults, but mating status of mothers had no influence on mating success and longevity of their sons. We provide the first empirical evidence in a haplodiploid mite that virgin mothers adjusted their resource allocations to yield sons that produced more daughters at a higher rate.