Lw. Simmons et Dt. Gwynne, REPRODUCTIVE INVESTMENT IN BUSH-CRICKETS - THE ALLOCATION OF MALE ANDFEMALE NUTRIENTS TO OFFSPRING, Proceedings - Royal Society. Biological Sciences, 252(1333), 1993, pp. 1-5
Male bushcrickets provide their mates with a nutritious meal, the sper
matophylax. that is attached to the sperm-containing ampulla of the sp
ermatophore and transferred to the female at mating. Females feed on t
he spermatophylax during insemination. We labelled males and females w
ith different radioactive isotopes to examine the allocation of male-
and female-derived nutrients to eggs. Both male and female labels were
incorporated into developing eggs. Females provided with an ad libitu
m diet allocated a greater proportion of their own and male-derived nu
trients to reproduction and thereby produced more eggs than did nutrie
nt-limited females. Conversely, nutrient-limited females retained more
of their own and male-derived nutrients in their somatic tissue. Ther
e were no sexual differences in the rate of allocation of label to ind
ividual eggs, suggesting that male and female investment is qualitativ
ely similar. These data support the idea that male bushcrickets contri
bute pre-zygotic parental investment and, further, male investment in
individual eggs is greater when females are nutrient limited.