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Relationship between body size, provisioning rate, longevity and reproductive success in females of the solitary bee Osmia cornuta

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Abstract

Body size has often been related to reproductive success in bees and wasps. The objective of this 3-year study was to analyze the relationship between nesting female body size, provisioning rate and longevity and their effect on several traits related to parental investment and reproductive success in the solitary bee Osmia cornuta. Body size was not correlated to longevity, and it was only correlated to provisioning rate in the third year (with poor weather conditions during nesting). Variation in fecundity, offspring size and offspring mortality was not well explained by nesting female body size in any of the 3 years. However, in the third year, small females biased their investment toward males, the sex requiring smaller pollen–nectar provisions. Large females were more successful usurpers of other females' nests, but fecundity of usurpers was no higher than fecundity of nonusurpers. Large females were more likely to establish at the release site, probably in relation to size-dependent vigor at emergence. A review of the literature on parental investment in solitary aculeate Hymenoptera showed a stronger relationship between body size and reproductive success in wasps than in bees. In O. cornuta, fecundity was strongly related to longevity and provisioning rate in all 3 years. Offspring size was associated with provisioning rate in 1 year, when females with higher provisioning rates tended to produce larger sons and daughters. Both longevity and provisioning rate appeared to be strongly conditioned by stochastic events.

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to the staff at Mas Bové for their support throughout the study and to J. Calzadilla, M.A. Escolano, M. López, and J. Losarcos for generously sharing many hours of field observations and nest dissections. The manuscript benefited from the comments of J. Retana (CREAF-Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and an anonymous reviewer. This study complies with Spanish laws and was supported by a FPI scholarship from the Spanish MEC to J.B., a Dirección General de Investigación Cientifica y Técnica (DGICYT) grant (AGR 91-0988-CO3) and an INIA grant (88-8191).

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  1. Unitat d'Ecologia, Departament de Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal y Ecologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona-CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica y Aplicacions Forestals), 08193, Bellaterra, Spain

    Jordi Bosch

  2. Departament de Biologia Animal, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Jordi Bosch

  3. Departament de Biologia Animal, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Narcís Vicens

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  1. Jordi Bosch
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  2. Narcís Vicens
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Correspondence to Jordi Bosch.

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Communicated by R.F.A. Moritz

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Bosch, J., Vicens, N. Relationship between body size, provisioning rate, longevity and reproductive success in females of the solitary bee Osmia cornuta . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 60, 26–33 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0134-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0134-4

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