Sex allocation and local mate competition in Old World non-pollinating fig wasps |
| |
Authors: | Mark D E Fellowes Steve G Compton James M Cook |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Biology and NERC Centre for Population Biology Imperial College at Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK e-mail: j.cook@ic.ac.uk, CK;(2) Ecology and Evolution Group, School of Biology University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK, GB |
| |
Abstract: | The populations of many species are structured such that mating is not random and occurs between members of local patches.
When patches are founded by a single female and all matings occur between siblings, brothers may compete with each other for
matings with their sisters. This local mate competition (LMC) selects for a female-biased sex ratio, especially in species
where females have control over offspring sex, as in the parasitic Hymenoptera. Two factors are predicted to decrease the
degree of female bias: (1) an increase in the number of foundress females in the patch and (2) an increase in the fraction
of individuals mating after dispersal from the natal patch. Pollinating fig wasps are well known as classic examples of species
where all matings occur in the local patch. We studied non-pollinating fig wasps, which are more diverse than the pollinating
fig wasps and also provide natural experimental groups of species with different male morphologies that are linked to different
mating structures. In this group of wasps, species with wingless males mate in the local patch (i.e. the fig fruit) while
winged male species mate after dispersal. Species with both kinds of male have a mixture of local and non-local mating. Data
from 44 species show that sex ratios (defined as the proportion of males) are in accordance with theoretical predictions:
wingless male species<wing-dimorphic male species<winged male species. These results are also supported by a formal comparative
analysis that controls for phylogeny. The foundress number is difficult to estimate directly for non-pollinating fig wasps
but a robust indirect method leads to the prediction that foundress number, and hence sex ratio, should increase with the
proportion of patches occupied in a crop. This result is supported strongly across 19 species with wingless males, but not
across 8 species with winged males. The mean sex ratios for species with winged males are not significantly different from
0.5, and the absence of the correlation observed across species with wingless males may reflect weak selection to adjust the
sex ratio in species whose population mating structure tends not to be subdivided. The same relationship is also predicted
to occur within species if individual females adjust their sex ratios facultatively. This final prediction was not supported
by data from a wingless male species, a male wing-dimorphic species or a winged male species.
Received: 27 July 1998 / Received in revised form: 11 January 1999 / Accepted: 16 January 1999 |
| |
Keywords: | Fig wasps Local mate competition Sex allocation Sex ratio Wing morphology |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|