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Male reproductive investment relative to age and flight behaviour in the monandrous butterfly Pararge aegeria

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Abstract

Male reproductive investment may signify a considerable cost to male insects that produce sperm packages or spermatophores. Male butterflies allocate much of their active time budget to mate location, and they may adopt different behavioural strategies to do so. In the speckled wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria L.), males adopt either a territorial wait-and-fight strategy (territorial perching) or a fly-and-search strategy in wider areas (patrolling). In this study, we analysed the impact of male age, male size and male behaviour (i.e. behavioural strategies and levels of activity) on spermatophore investment (i.e. spermatophore mass, number of eupyrene sperm bundles). As predicted, reproductive investment increased with male age and size. Nevertheless, the increase of spermatophore mass with age and the number of eupyrene sperm bundles (i.e. fertile sperm) was stronger in low-activity males compared to active flying males. This suggests that flight activity has a negative impact on male reproductive investment. However, males that were forced to fly in the laboratory produced more eupyrene sperm bundles than resting males. We discuss the potential effects of male–male competition and predation risk on current versus future male reproduction. Males adopting different mate-locating strategies (perching and patrolling) in outdoor cages did not differ in spermatophore traits as was predicted from their very different flight performances. Copulations of territorial perching males took somewhat longer than copulations with non-perching males. There was a significant family effect of spermatophore size and of the expression of male mate-locating strategies suggesting heritable variation. Female traits (i.e. age and size) did not strongly affect spermatophore production. We discuss the results relative to both ultimate and proximate explanations of the complex relationships between butterfly activity, behavioural strategies, age and spermatophore production.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Hubert Baltus and Melanie Gibbs for practical assistance and to Eric Le Boulengé and Gilles San Martin for statistical assistance. Thanks are also due to the editor and three anonymous referees for their valuable comments to improve our manuscript and to Ellyn Bitume for language editing. L.V.V. has a PhD grant of the FRIA-Fund of the Walloon government (FRS–FNRS, Belgium). This is publication no. BRC 236 of the Biodiversity Research Centre (UCL).

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  1. Behavioural Ecology and Conservation Group, Biodiversity Research Centre, Earth and Life Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Croix du Sud 4, bte. 7.07.04, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Lesley Vande Velde, Pauline Silvestre, David Damiens & Hans Van Dyck

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  1. Lesley Vande Velde
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  2. Pauline Silvestre
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Correspondence to Hans Van Dyck.

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Communicated by D. Kemp

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Vande Velde, L., Silvestre, P., Damiens, D. et al. Male reproductive investment relative to age and flight behaviour in the monandrous butterfly Pararge aegeria . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 66, 347–359 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1281-4

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