Summary
The hypothesis was tested that egg-laying by rosehip fruit flies,Rhagoletis basiola, would lead to reduced adult survivorship compared with oviposition-deprived flies, through experimental manipulation. Oviposition-deprived flies were assigned to two groups: mated and spinster. All three treatment groups were permitted to spend equal time and energy exploring and handling hosts but only the former group were allowed to deposit eggs (three/day). Results clearly showed that ovipositing flies suffered significantly higher mortality rates and that mated and spinster flies produced similar survivorship patterns. I consider these results both as a foraging problem (i.e. laying eggs in inferior hosts can cost both eggs and life) and as a more general life history problem.
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Roitberg, B.D. The cost of reproduction in rosehip flies,Rhagoletis basiola: Eggs are time. Evol Ecol 3, 183–188 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02270920
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02270920