Maternal investment and size-number trade-off in a bee, Megachile apicalis, in seasonal environments

Maternal investment in offspring size and number differed between spring- and summer-emerging individual females of Megachile apicalis, a solitary multivoltine bee. Data from experimentally initiated female populations indicated that spring-emerging females produced a relatively large number of progeny but allocated a small amount of food to each, resulting in small progeny. Adult females of larger body sizes provisioned food at a greater rate than did smaller females, and this body-size effect was significant in spring-emerging females. The large body size of these females allowed them to increase the number of progeny produced under the abundant floral resources that occurred during the spring. Conversely, summer-emerging females produced fewer progeny under the diminishing resources for brood production, but allocated each with more food, producing larger progeny, most of which emerged in the spring of the following year. Field data using trap-nests also indicated the same pattern of seasonal offspring size allocation found in the experimental populations. This maternal investment strategy entails a trade-off between the size and number of progeny, so that the daughters upon emergence can best perform in their brood production under the seasonally variable environments where they reproduce.     

Thermal history influences diapause development in the solitary bee Megachile rotundata

Respiration rate, time to pupation and the expression patterns of selected genes were examined during the diapause to post-diapause transition in the alfalfa leafcutting bee, Megachile rotundata held at constant 4 degrees C in winter storage. Respiration quotients were at or below 0.7 from December to May and then increased to over 0.8 in June and July. The time required for prepupae to reach the pupal stage following transfer to 29 degrees C decreased from 23 days in December to 10 days in July. HSP70 was expressed at a consistently high level in all the diapausing prepupae stored at 4 degrees C. In contrast, we demonstrated previously that HSP70 expression in diapausing prepupae maintained under field conditions began decreasing after December and was expressed at trace levels in the June samples. Transferring prepupae stored at 4 to 25 degrees C at monthly intervals from December to July induced a significant decrease in HSP70. Levels of HSC70 showed no changes during the transition to post-diapause development in prepupae maintained at 4 degrees C. Transferring the prepupae to 25 degrees C during the April-June time interval elicited an increase in HSC70 expression. HSP90 was expressed at a consistent level in prepupae stored at 4 degrees C but decreased to very low levels after being transferred to 25 degrees C in December-February prepupae: no decrease was noted in the April-July prepupae. Actin was expressed at trace levels in the diapausing prepupae maintained at 4 degrees C and increased slightly in the post-diapausing pupae. Transferring prepupae stored at 4 to 25 degrees C at monthly intervals from December to July induced an increase in actin expression. These results indicate that the level of gene expression for selected genes in diapausing and post-diapause bees is highly influenced by their thermal history.     

Etiology and symptomatology of chalkbrood in the alfalfa leafcutting bee,Megachile rotundata

Aseptically reared larvae of the alfalfa leafcutting bee, Megachile rotundata, are susceptible to infection by spores but not mycelial cultures of Ascosphaera aggregata when introduced per os. The symptoms and signs of chalkbrood vary, depending upon host age at inoculation. Larvae inoculated early in life did not undergo the internal color changes after death that characterized larvae inoculated later. A longer time to death was also evident among larvae inoculated at an early age. Changes in the aerobic state of the host gut at the molt to the fourth instar may account for the difference in average time to death.     

Alternative Female Choice Tactics in the Scorpionfly Hylobittacus apicalis(Mecoptera) and Their Implications

Females of the scorpionfly Hylobittacus apicalis choose mateson the basis of material benefits (nuptial arthropod prey size)and probably on the basis of genetic benefits males deliverat mating. Females feed on the male's prey throughout copulation.They prefer males with large prey as mates and often refusemales who present small prey. That females may value male geneticquality is suggested by differences in ability of males to obtainlarge prey, which if inherited would influence offspring fitness,and by females often terminating mating with males with smallprey before they transfer any sperm or a complete ejaculate.Females hunt only when males with prey are not available becausehunting exposes individuals to predators. Female Hylobittacusapicalis exhibit alternative mate choice tactics, which arecondition-dependent in expression and probably comprise a conditionalstrategy. Body size, recent feeding history, and male availabilitydetermine how discriminating an individual female actually is,and these conditions may determine the value of material andgenetic benefits in mate choice decisions. The results suggestthat female choice controls male behavior. When females becomechoosy, males are forced to obtain rare large prey despite theincreased risks to males associated with this behavior. The implications of the findings on H. apicalis are discussedin relation to condition dependent female choice patterns inother species and the evolutionary maintenance of female choice.     

DNA fingerprinting analysis in the solitary bee Megachile rotundata: variability and nest mate genetic relationships.

The most conventional approach for evaluating genetic variability in an insect population involves assessing the degree of enzyme polymorphism. Hymenoptera display a relatively low level of genetic variability compared with most insect species. DNA probes consisting of tandemly repeated sequences are powerful tools for detecting polymorphisms when employed to develop DNA fingerprinting (DNAfp) profiles in a wide range of organisms. This report describes genetic variability in the solitary bee species Megachile rotundata as assessed by DNAfp using the M13 sequence and a synthetic oligonucleotide sequence homologous to a hypervariable region of the alpha-globin gene. DNAfp comparisons among offspring were used to analyze genealogical structure in M. rotundata nests. The results indicate that polyandry, by a large number of males, is not a common phenomenon in M. rotundata bee species. In the present analysis, it is likely that the broods raised in single nests are mostly the offspring of one singly mated female. However, the data does not preclude that for certain nests two males could have been involved in the mating process.     

人工释放苜蓿切叶蜂的营巢行为观察

苜蓿切叶蜂Megachile rotundata Fabricius是紫花苜蓿的理想授粉昆虫,国内外已广泛利用切叶蜂为紫花苜蓿授粉,因此,对切叶蜂的田间活动行为分析具有重要的实践指导意义。对苜蓿切叶蜂的田间营巢行为进行观测,结果表明:整个花期切叶蜂均十分活跃,放蜂的第4天开始适应环境,正常活动,7月8～22日,切叶蜂最为活跃,进入蜂巢的切叶蜂数最高时达426头/蜂巢,每日10:00～16:00为活动高峰。每日每块蜂巢的封孔数最多为14个,平均每个蜂室封闭巢孔的数量最多为185个。     

Influence of resource level on maternal investment in a leaf-cutter bee (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)

Fisher's (1930) prediction of equal investment for each sexin a panmictic population is influenced by a number of ecologicalfactors, among which resource availability plays a major role,particularly when the population exists under changing resource availability.Rosenheim et al. proposed a multifaceted parental investment modelbased on the underlying assumption that individual females determine theirsex investment according to resource availability and oocyte availabilityto maximize reproductive success. The model predicts that greater availabilityof resources used for provisions will lead to (1) an increasein the proportion of females produced (when the female is thelarger sex) and (2) an increase in the amount of provisionsper offspring and thus an increase in offspring size. I testedthese predictions by a controlled experiment using a leaf-cutterbee, Megachile apicalis. I presented two levels of food resourcesto the nesting females, which were allowed to forage and nestin cages. The experimental results supported these parentalinvestment model's predictions.     

Use of RAPD analyses to estimate population genetic parameters in the alfalfa leaf-cutting bee, Megachile rotundata.

RAPD analyses were performed on five geographically isolated populations of Megachile rotundata. We used haploid males of the alfalfa leaf-cutting bee, M. rotundata, to overcome the limitation of the dominance of RAPD markers in the determination of population genetic parameters. Sixteen primers gave rise to 130 polymorphic and 31 monomorphic bands. The unbiased estimators calculated in this study include within- and between-population heterozygosity, nucleotide divergence, and genetic distance. The genetic diversity (H = 0.32-0.35) was found to be about 10 times that of previous estimates (H = 0.033) based on allozyme data. Contrary to the data obtained at the protein level, our results suggest that Hymenoptera do not have a lower level of genetic variability at the DNA level compared with other insect species. Regardless of the different assumptions underlying the calculation of heterozygosity, divergence, and genetic distance, all five populations showed a parallel interrelationship for the three parameters. We conclude that RAPD markers are a convenient tool to estimate population genetic variation in haploid M. rotundata and that with an adequate sample size the technique is applicable to the evaluation of divergence in diploid populations. Key words : Megachile rotundata, RAPD, heterozygosity, genetic distance, nucleotide divergence.     

Female mate preference and offspring fitness in the melon fly

The influence of female mate preference on the fitness components of offspring was studied in the melon fly,Dacus cucurbitae. Adult flies were allowed to mate under two experimental treatments. In one treatment, 100 females and 100 males were allowed to mate freely in a cage (cage-mating). In the other treatment, a single female was allowed to mate with a single male in a small chamber (chamber-mating). Viability in the immature stages was not different between two treatments. The developmental speed of female offspring in the cage-mating treatment was faster than that in the chamber-mating treatment. The wing length of offspring of both sex in the cage-mating treatment was also larger than that in the chamber-mating treatment. These results were considered to support 3-trait handicap models of the evolution of female mate preference.     

Individual foraging in the antPachycondyla apicalis

Summary A model of individual foraging in social insects as presented that formalises the dynamics of foraging and concentrates on the collective rather than the individual benefit, quantifying the relationships between a colony's foraging area, number of foragers and foraging energy budget and the food sources' rate of arrival, disappearance and capture. A series of experiments, in which a number of prey were offered to colonies of the individually foraging antPachycondyla (ex-Neoponera) apicalis confirm the hypotheses implicit in the model and measured the rates of capture and competition. 60 days observation of 3P. apicalis colonies' foraging activity are summarised and used in conjunction with the model to obtain estimations of the density and rate of arrival of available prey in the foraging area. We examine how a colony's foraging benefit may be influenced by its foraging area, the number of foragers, and the forager/non-forager ratio and show that a colony's jocial structure strongly limits its potential foraging benefit. Within these limits,P. apicalis does not appear to be an optimal forager.     

Laying sequence,diploid males,and nest usurpation in the leafcutter bee,Megachile rotundata (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)

Variations from the normal female-male sequence of eggs in nests of the leafcutter bee,Megachile rotundata, were examined. Three alternatives were considered: Out-of-sequence males (i) were diploids, (ii) were the result of supersedure of nests or intraspecific brood parasitism, or (iii) were the result of females occasionally laying a male-female sequence. Electrophoretic data provided definitive evidence of diploid males and of multiple females laying in 7 of 18 nests. In the others, the remaining explanation is that females occasionally lay male eggs before female eggs in a nest.     

Sex ratios, local fitness enhancement and eusociality in the allodapine bee Exoneura richardsoni

Previous studies of a facultatively eusocial allodapine bee, Exoneura richardsoni Rayment, indicated that high levels of cooperative nesting among close relatives seem to be maintained by benefits that lead to increases in per capita brood production. These traits could lead to local fitness enhancement, which in turn could select for female-biased sex ratios. We show here that sex investment ratios in this species are female-biased in small colony sizes, becoming progressively male-biased in larger colonies, consistent with expectations for local fitness enhancement, but not explainable by alternative models. Our results support previous suggestions that local fitness enhancement can lead to sex ratio bias in primitively social Hymenoptera, but differ from previous studies by suggesting that patterns of bias could lower selective thresholds for sib-directed altruism in small colonies, but have an opposing effect in large colonies.     

Ascosphaera subglobosa, a new spore cyst fungus from North America associated with the solitary bee Megachile rotundata

Ascosphaera subglobosa (Eurotiomycetes: Onygenales) is newly described from the pollen provisions and nesting material of the solitary leaf-cutting bee Megachile rotundata in Canada and the western United States. This new species, related to A. atra and A. duoformis, is distinguished from other Ascosphaera species by its globose to subglobose ascospores, evanescent spore balls and unique nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences (ITS and LSU).     

Offspring size and parental fitness in Daphnia magna

Variation in offspring size and number has been described for a wide range of organisms. Many theoretical models predict that in a given environment, the production of one single offspring size would yield the highest parental fitness. In most planktonic cladocerans, however, offspring size has been found to increase with size and age of the mother, and as individuals of variable size often co-occur within a population, offspring of variable sizes can be produced simultaneously. In this study, I investigated the relationship between age of the mother and size of her offspring to assess at what age of the mother the optimal offspring size was produced. Optimal offspring size was defined as that size of the offspring yielding the highest parental fitness, which translates to a definition of optimal offspring size as the one having the highest juvenile fitness per unit effort put in these juveniles. I observed that the youngest females produced offspring with the highest juvenile fitness per unit effort, and hence concluded that offspring produced by these females were of optimal size. Larger offspring produced by older females were estimated to yield only 70% of the potential fitness of optimally sized offspring.