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Differential thermal performance curves in response to different habitats in the parasitoid Venturia canescens

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Abstract

Environmental variability is expected to be important in shaping performance curves, reaction norms of phenotypic traits related to fitness. Models predict that the breadth of performance curves should increase with environmental variability at the expense of maximal performance. In this study, we compared the thermal performance curves of two sympatric populations of the parasitoid Venturia canescens that were observed under contrasting thermal regimes in their respective preferred habitats and differing in their modes of reproduction. Our results confirm the large effect of developmental temperature on phenotypic traits of insects and demonstrate that thelytokous and arrhenotokous wasps respond differently to temperature during development, in agreement with model predictions. For traits related to fecundity, thelytokous parasitoids, which usually occur in stable thermal conditions, exhibit specialist performance curves, maximising their reproductive success under a restricted range of temperature. In contrast, arrhenotokous parasitoids, which occur in variable climates, exhibit generalist performance curves, in keeping with the hypothesis "jack of all temperatures, master of none".

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to François Débias and Sandrine Sauzet for his help in rearing of V. canescens. We would like to thank Isabelle Amat, Jacintha Ellers, Jacques Van Alphen and Berteau Florence for their comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the manuscript. Research was supported by the French Ministry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Lyon, F-69000, Lyon, France

    Vincent Foray, Patricia Gibert & Emmanuel Desouhant

  2. Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France

    Vincent Foray, Patricia Gibert & Emmanuel Desouhant

  3. CNRS, UMR5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, F-69622, Villeurbanne, France

    Vincent Foray, Patricia Gibert & Emmanuel Desouhant

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  1. Vincent Foray
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Correspondence to Vincent Foray or Emmanuel Desouhant.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Foray, V., Gibert, P. & Desouhant, E. Differential thermal performance curves in response to different habitats in the parasitoid Venturia canescens . Naturwissenschaften 98, 683–691 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0818-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0818-8

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