1 research outputs found
Condition-dependent ejaculate production affects male mating behavior in the common bedbug Cimex lectularius
Food availability in the environment is often low and variable, constraining organisms in their resource allocation to different lifeâhistory traits. For example, variation in food availability is likely to induce conditionâdependent investment in reproduction. Further, diet has been shown to affect ejaculate size, composition and quality. How these effects translate into male reproductive success or change male mating behavior is still largely unknown. Here, we concentrated on the effect of meal size on ejaculate production, male reproductive success and mating behavior in the common bedbug Cimex lectularius. We analyzed the production of sperm and seminal fluid within three different feeding regimes in six different populations. Males receiving large meals produced significantly more sperm and seminal fluid than males receiving small meals or no meals at all. While such conditionâdependent ejaculate production did not affect the number of offspring produced after a single mating, foodârestricted males could perform significantly fewer matings than fully fed males. Therefore, in a multiple mating context foodârestricted males paid a fitness cost and might have to adjust their mating strategy according to the ejaculate available to them. Our results indicate that meal size has no direct effect on ejaculate quality, but food availability forces a conditionâdependent mating rate on males. Environmental variation translating into variation in male reproductive traits reveals that natural selection can interact with sexual selection and shape reproductive traits. As males can modulate their ejaculate size depending on the mating situation, future studies are needed to elucidate whether environmental variation affecting the amount of ejaculate available might induce different mating strategies