Previous work in our lab showed that long duration flight accelerates reproduction in a grasshopper, Melanoplus sanguinipes. Considering the fact that migration seems to extract a cost of reproduction in many insects, enhanced reproduction after long flight is not a common phenomenon and its mechanism is not understood at all. We tested the possibility that enhanced reproduction after long flight can be achieved by nutritional supplementation through either nutrient transfer via increased mating or feeding behavior changes after long flight. We did not observe any difference in mating frequency and duration after long flight. However, females after long flight consumed significantly greater quantities of food and displayed increased digestive capacity for lipid. These results suggest that nutritional compensation by changes in feeding behavior could partially account for the increased reproduction after long flight in M. sanguinipes.
Species 1: Orthoptera Acrididae Melanoplus sanguinipes (migratory grasshopper)
Keywords: mating behavior
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