Affiliation:
1. Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5
2. Evolution and Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia
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.
Funder
Centre Méditerranéen de l'Environnement et de la Biodiversité
Australian Research Council
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Environmental Science,General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine
Cited by
11 articles.
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