Different mating expenditure in response to sperm competition risk between generations in the bivoltine butterfly Pieris napi

摘要

Examining how the response to sperm competition risk varies in a population is essential in order to understand variation in reproductive success and mating system. In polyandrous butterflies, males transfer a large spermatophore at mating that delays female remating and confers an advantage in sperm competition. However, as large ejaculates are costly to produce—male expenditure on ejaculate size should be selected to vary with risk of sperm competition, as previously shown in the butterfly Pieris napi. In P. napi, adults can either emerge after winter diapause, or they can emerge as a directly developing generation later in the summer. Post-diapause adults have fewer developmental constraints because direct developers have to grow, develop, emerge, mate, and reproduce during a more limited seasonal timeframe, and as a result are more time-stressed. The two generations show polyphenisms in a variety of traits including polyandry, pheromone production, mating propensity, and sexual maturity at eclosion. Using these within-species, between-generation differences in ecology, we generated three important findings: (1) that both generations respond to an immediate risk of elevated sperm competition and significantly raise ejaculate investment, (2) that the diapausing generation raises this investment by a far greater 65 % increase compared with the direct generation males’ 28 %, and (3) that males show a graded response relative to sperm competition risk and increase their ejaculate investment in relation to the actual level of mate competition. The difference in male mating allocation between generations may help explain life history evolution and geographic differences in mating patterns.