Information use exhibits tradeoffs with fecundity in the butterfly Pieris rapae

Direct parental investment, such as post-natal provisioning and protection of offspring, is known to exhibit tradeoffs with fecundity and other life-history traits. However, many insects do not have overlapping generations, so indirect forms of parental investment are often more common. For example, insects use information to choose nutritious resources or safe locations where eggs are deposited. Does such decision-making also represent a costly form of offspring investment? We examined tradeoffs between fecundity and information use in the cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae. To test the prediction that information use is negatively correlated with fecundity, we presented female cabbage whites with a plant array that included social and personal information and allowed them to oviposit. We quantified information use and recorded fecundity by summing the eggs laid in the array and dissecting out remaining eggs from sacrificed females. Personal and social information use were positively correlated with each other and negatively correlated with fecundity. These results suggest that life-history tradeoffs may extend to indirect forms of reproductive investment characteristic of many insect taxa.