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Variable flight distance to resources results in changing sex allocation decisions, Megachile rotundata

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Abstract

Resource availability and location are expected to vary, based on use by individuals and changing ecological conditions; the response of animals to those changes is critical to their fitness. To investigate the effects of changing conditions on fitness, we conducted field experiments using the central-place-foraging alfalfa leafcutting bee (Megachile rotundata), examining the changes in sex allocation when presented with changes in flight distance required to obtain resources. The results suggest that changes in flight distance to resources during the year’s flight season altered subsequent allocation decisions: mothers experiencing long flight distance to resources early in the season and short flight distance later in the season generated a greater proportion of female offspring than mothers experiencing the opposite. During the second half of the season, however, it was current experimental conditions significantly impacting decisions with those mothers residing near the resources producing a greater portion of female offspring than those far from resources, regardless of flight distances experienced earlier in the year. These results show that sex allocation decisions may change dynamically during a female’s lifetime in response to ecological changes. We also looked at these results through the contradicting hypotheses marginal value theorem and sex ratio theory, finding that the latter may be in play depending on an individual’s past and/or present condition.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Elizabeth Elle, Dov Lank, Jay Rosenheim and David Green for discussions on this issue, our field assistant Gordon Peterson, Gloria Evans for editorial comments, and Brian Ma for his editorial help on earlier drafts. This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada through a Postgraduate doctoral scholarship (JHP) and operating grant (BDR).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Science, Augustana Campus, University of Alberta, Camrose, Alberta, T4V 2R3, Canada

    Jason H. Peterson

  2. Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada

    Bernard D. Roitberg

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  1. Jason H. Peterson
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  2. Bernard D. Roitberg
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Correspondence to Jason H. Peterson.

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Communicated by W. T. Wcislo

Significance statement

It is clear that some animals can alter their investment towards sons or daughters, but it is not known whether such organisms continually modify these decisions throughout their lifetimes or are constrained to a once-only decision. We solved this problem via an experimental design wherein distance to floral resources was reversed partway through the season, for leafcutting bees. The bees demonstrated ability to dynamically alter their sex allocation decisions as their field environment changed as well as their own internal states (e.g. wing wear and tear). Our dataset provided a great opportunity to test predictions from sex allocation versus classic foraging theory. We found that the former is better at explaining parental allocation behaviour. Since many organisms are iteroparous, the notion of dynamic reproductive allocation will be important to our understanding of the evolution of reproductive strategies.

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Peterson, J.H., Roitberg, B.D. Variable flight distance to resources results in changing sex allocation decisions, Megachile rotundata . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 70, 247–253 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-2043-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-2043-5

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