Egg size affects larval performance in a coleopteran parasitoid

Abstract

1. Optimal progeny size models assume that the more eggs a female produces, the lower the amount of resource allocated per egg. As egg size generally correlates with the fitness of the emerging immature, this trade‐off can be expressed as a choice between the production of numerous low quality or fewer high quality progeny.2. The first‐instar larvae of the coleopteran parasitoid Aleochara bilineata have to search for and parasitise dipteran pupae. The present study found a positive correlation between egg size and larval weight, but not between egg size and development time. Larger first‐instar larvae survived longer, were more active, and found and parasitised their host more rapidly.3. Female A. bilineata may invest smaller larvae in conditions of high host density and low intraspecific competition, but investing fewer, larger larvae would bring them more fitness when hosts are scarce and competition high.

Comparing resource exploitation and allocation of two closely related aphid parasitoids sharing the same host

“…no food absorption), containing large amounts of lipids and proteins (Chapman 1998;Rivero and Casas 1999;Rivero et al 2001;Rivero and West 2002). For these parasitoids and many other insects, producing smaller eggs may thus be detrimental via an increased mortality and/or a decreased activity at the adult stage (Fox and Czesak 2000;Giron and Casas 2003;Boivin and Gauvin 2009). In parasitoids, plasticity in egg size or composition has rarely been investigated (Giron and Casas 2003;Bezemer et al 2005;Le Lann et al 2011b) and for koinobionts, the link between egg size and fitness of progeny has never been proven (Kraaijeveld and van Alphen 1994;Lalonde 2005).…”

Fitness costs of intrinsic competition in two egg parasitoids of a true bug

“…Thus for the latter species, egg production is costly and small females emerging from superparasitized hosts may not be able to store enough resources in their oocytes due to nutritional constraints. Under inter-specific competition, or lack of competition, O. telenomicida matures large oocytes that could provide more nutrients for the embryo development and might bring higher fitness gain to the offspring (Fox, 1994;Boivin and Gauvin, 2009). …”

Mother-Offspring Relations: Prey Quality and Maternal Size Affect Egg Size of an Acariphagous Lady Beetle in Culture

“…Others have shown that larvae of two predatory carabids, P. cupreus and P. melanarius, which hatch from large rather than small eggs, lived longer [8]. Larger-sized first instar larvae of a staphylinid A. bilineata survive longer and are more efficient at finding hosts than smaller-sized ones [24].…”

“…In the staphylinid beetle Aleochara bilineata (Gyll. ), larger first instar larvae survived longer and were more efficient at finding hosts than smaller-sized ones [24].…”