One clutch or two clutches? Fitness correlates of coexisting alternative female life-histories in the European earwig

Meunier, Joël; Wong, Janine W. Y.; Gómez, Yamenah; Kuttler, Sabine; Röllin, Lilian; Stucki, Dimitri; Kölliker, Mathias

doi:10.1007/s10682-011-9510-x

Cited by 81 publications

(172 citation statements)

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“…All nymphs were subsequently transferred to medium Petri dishes for 15 days, and then to large Petri dishes from which the proportion of nymphs surviving until adulthood was later determined. Simultaneously, tending mothers were isolated in medium Petri dishes on day 16 to quantify the occurrence and the size of second clutches [13]. The fresh weights of mothers were measured at egg hatching and on day 16.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To ensure food restriction, we provided each group with a standardized amount of food every six days (diet composition in [13]) and removed the left-over food three days after supply (food was generally finished in two days). The quantity of food was adjusted according to the age of the nymphs, with 60, 120 and 240 mg while in small, medium and large Petri dishes, respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The quantity of food was adjusted according to the age of the nymphs, with 60, 120 and 240 mg while in small, medium and large Petri dishes, respectively. Females had access to ad libitum food once isolated for second clutch production [13].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each model was computed using maternal presence, brood size and mating treatment as fixed factors, and the clutch of origin as the random factor. To assess whether variation in the benefits of maternal presence (BMP) on offspring survival until adulthood was related to female food intake and future reproduction, analyses of covariance were used with BMP as a covariate, brood size and mating treatment as fixed factors, and either female relative weight gain on day 16, number of second clutch eggs produced or relative investment of females into second clutch (¼ number of second clutch eggs divided by the number of total eggs [13]) as the response variable. BMP was calculated by subtracting the survival rates of nymphs without mothers from the ones with mothers, between groups of same size and same clutch of origin.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This species is ideal for our question since mothers protect their clutches against natural enemies, provide food to their young and their presence improves offspring (nymph) survival under ad libitum food conditions. Furthermore, nymphs can survive and feed for themselves in the absence of mothers, and females can lay a second and final clutch a few weeks after having tended first clutch nymphs [4,13,14]. To assess whether maternal presence possibly decreases offspring survival by exacerbating the effects of sibling competition (partly mediated by sibling cannibalism [15]), we also manipulated brood size [4] and siblings' relatedness [15] in addition to maternal presence.…”

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confidence: 99%

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When it is costly to have a caring mother: food limitation erases the benefits of parental care in earwigs

Meunier

Kölliker

2012

Biol. Lett.

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The aggregation of parents with offspring is generally associated with different forms of care that improve offspring survival at potential costs to parents. Under poor environments, the limited amount of resources available can increase the level of competition among family members and consequently lead to adaptive changes in parental investment. However, it remains unclear as to what extent such changes modify offspring fitness, particularly when offspring can survive without parents such as in the European earwig, Forficula auricularia. Here, we show that under food restriction, earwig maternal presence decreased offspring survival until adulthood by 43 per cent. This effect was independent of sibling competition and was expressed after separation from the female, indicating lasting detrimental effects. The reduced benefits of maternal presence on offspring survival were not associated with higher investment in future reproduction, suggesting a condition-dependent effect of food restriction on mothers and local mother -offspring competition for food. Overall, these findings demonstrate for the first time a long-term negative effect of maternal presence on offspring survival in a species with maternal care, and highlight the importance of food availability in the early evolution of family life.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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When it is costly to have a caring mother: food limitation erases the benefits of parental care in earwigs

Meunier

Kölliker

2012

Biol. Lett.

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Between semelparity and iteroparity: Empirical evidence for a continuum of modes of parity

Hughes

2017

Ecology and Evolution

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The number of times an organism reproduces (i.e., its mode of parity) is a fundamental life‐history character, and evolutionary and ecological models that compare the relative fitnesses of different modes of parity are common in life‐history theory and theoretical biology. Despite the success of mathematical models designed to compare intrinsic rates of increase (i.e., density‐independent growth rates) between annual‐semelparous and perennial‐iteroparous reproductive schedules, there is widespread evidence that variation in reproductive allocation among semelparous and iteroparous organisms alike is continuous. This study reviews the ecological and molecular evidence for the continuity and plasticity of modes of parity—that is, the idea that annual‐semelparous and perennial‐iteroparous life histories are better understood as endpoints along a continuum of possible strategies. I conclude that parity should be understood as a continuum of different modes of parity, which differ by the degree to which they disperse or concentrate reproductive effort in time. I further argue that there are three main implications of this conclusion: (1) that seasonality should not be conflated with parity; (2) that mathematical models purporting to explain the general evolution of semelparous life histories from iteroparous ones (or vice versa) should not assume that organisms can only display either an annual‐semelparous life history or a perennial‐iteroparous one; and (3) that evolutionary ecologists should base explanations of how different life‐history strategies evolve on the physiological or molecular basis of traits underlying different modes of parity.

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Variations in seasonal (not mean) temperatures drive rapid adaptations to novel environments at a continent scale

Tourneur

Meunier

2020

Ecology

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The recent development of human societies has led to major, rapid, and often inexorable changes in the environment of most animal species. Over the last decades, a growing number of studies formulated predictions on the modalities of animal adaptation to novel or changing environments, questioning how and at what speed animals should adapt to such changes, discussing the levels of risks imposed by changes in the mean and/or variance of temperatures on animal performance, and exploring the underlying roles of phenotypic plasticity and genetic inheritance. These fundamental predictions, however, remain poorly tested using field data. Here, we tested these predictions using a unique continental‐scale data set in the European earwig Forficula auricularia L., a univoltine insect introduced in North America one century ago. We conducted a common garden experiment, in which we measured 13 life‐history traits in 4,158 field‐sampled earwigs originating from 19 populations across North America. Our results first demonstrate that 10 of the 13 measured life‐history traits are associated with two sets of variations in seasonal temperatures, that is, winter–summer and autumn–spring. We found, however, no association with the overall mean monthly temperatures of the invaded locations. Furthermore, our use of a common garden setup reveals that the observed patterns of variation in earwigs’ life‐history traits are not mere plastic responses to their current environment, but are either due to their genetic background and/or to the environmental conditions they experienced during early life development. Overall, these findings provide continent‐scale support to the claims that adaptation to thermal changes can occur quickly (in less than 100 generations), even in insects with long life cycles, and emphasize the importance of variation in seasonal temperature over mean population temperatures in climate adaptation.

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One clutch or two clutches? Fitness correlates of coexisting alternative female life-histories in the European earwig

Cited by 81 publications

References 45 publications

When it is costly to have a caring mother: food limitation erases the benefits of parental care in earwigs

When it is costly to have a caring mother: food limitation erases the benefits of parental care in earwigs

Between semelparity and iteroparity: Empirical evidence for a continuum of modes of parity

Variations in seasonal (not mean) temperatures drive rapid adaptations to novel environments at a continent scale

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