For many insects, manipulating temperature during development results in phenotypic plasticity of several life history traits. However, few studies consider both the separate and interactive effects of temperature during rearing and oviposition on these traits. We investigate the effects of rearing temperature on adult body size and development time in two populations of the seed beetle, Stator limbatus, occurring at different elevations. We also examine the effects of temperature experienced during rearing and during oviposition on age at first reproduction, fecundity, egg size and egg mortality. Body size and development time both increased with decreasing rearing temperature. At low temperature, individuals from the high elevation population emerged at a larger body size, while at high temperature individuals from the low elevation population emerged at a larger body size. Significant population by temperature interactions suggests that these traits may be targets of thermal selection (although the effect was small for development time). There were significant interactions between the effects of rearing and oviposition temperatures on age at first reproduction, fecundity and egg mortality traits. The significance of these interactive effects was revealed by reduced egg hatching ability of offspring of females reared at low temperature and ovipositing at high temperature. Moreover, the magnitude of the typical egg size/fecundity trade-off was influenced by rearing and oviposition temperature interactions, indicating phenotypic correlations between traits can also be affected. This study demonstrates that phenotypic responses of life history traits are complex and dependent upon the interactive effects of temperature experienced during rearing and oviposition.
Species 1: Coleoptera Chrysomelidae Stator limbatus (seed beetle)
Keywords: temperature, phenotypic plasticity
Back to Student Competition Ten-Minute Papers, Cd4, Behavior and Ecology
Back to Student Competition TMP Orals
Back to The 2003 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition