Unequal distribution of local mating opportunities in an egg parasitoid

Authors: MARTEL, VÉRONIQUE; BOIVIN, GUY

Source: Ecological Entomology, Volume 32, Number 4, August 2007 , pp. 393-398(6)

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Abstract:

1. The Local Mate Competition (LMC) model predicts that, in gregarious and quasi-gregarious species, a lone female exploiting a host patch will lay only the minimal number of sons necessary to inseminate all daughters, but as the number of foundresses increases, the proportion of sons deposited by these females also increases.

2. For off-patch mating to occur, non-sperm-depleted males must leave the patch and find virgin females.

3. To investigate the distribution of matings among males, the sperm stock at dispersal and the time of dispersal were quantified for male Trichogramma turkestanica (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae).

4. Matings were not distributed equally among males: some successful males acquired more matings than others. Because of this, a high variability in the sperm stock at dispersal was observed. While few males dispersed almost empty or almost full, the majority of males dispersed with enough sperm to be able to mate with females outside the emergence patch.

5. The mating capacity was thus higher than necessary for local mating and could be explained by an unequal distribution of mating opportunities and the occurrence of off-patch mating.

Keywords: Dispersal; off-patch mating; reproductive strategies; sperm; Trichogramma

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2311.2007.00895.x

Publication date: 2007-08-01