Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 278, Issue 1708, Pages 1054-1063Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1706
Keywords
gamete size; fertilization probability; sex ratio; offspring fitness; sexual dimorphism; haplodiploid species
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Funding
- CNRS
- ANR
- PESSOA
- Project for International Scientific Cooperation (PICS CNRS-Universidade de Lisboa)
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Haplodiploid species display extraordinary sex ratios. However, a differential investment in male and female offspring might also be achieved by a differential provisioning of eggs, as observed in birds and lizards. We investigated this hypothesis in the haplodiploid spider mite Tetranychus urticae, which displays highly female-biased sex ratios. We show that egg size significantly determines not only larval size, juvenile survival and adult size, but also fertilization probability, as in marine invertebrates with external fertilization, so that female (fertilized) eggs are significantly larger than male (unfertilized) eggs. Moreover, females with on average larger eggs before fertilization produce a more female-biased sex ratio afterwards. Egg size thus mediates sex-specific egg provisioning, sex and offspring sex ratio. Finally, sex-specific egg provisioning has another major consequence: male eggs produced by mated mothers are smaller than male eggs produced by virgins, and this size difference persists in adults. Virgin females might thus have a (male) fitness advantage over mated females.
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