Male morphological variation and the determinants of body size in two Otiteselline fig wasps

The chalcid wasps (Hymenoptera) that develop in fig tree inflorescences(Ficus: Moraceae) have often been used to study alternativereproductive behaviors. However, recent work suggests that suchbehaviors are more complex than previously thought. We investigatedthis in Otitesella longicauda and O. rotunda. In addition toknown dimorphisms in the two species (each have "religiosa"males that use their mandibles to fight for mates in the fig,and "digitata" males that disperse from the fig to mate), wefound that religiosa males below species-specific body sizeswitch points have relatively larger mandibles and are lesssclerotized than those above. Thus, they are actually trimorphic.We suggest that the religiosa morph variation is linked to fighter/nonfighteralternative mating behaviors, with small (nonfighting) maleshaving relatively larger mandibles because they also use themto pull females out of their galls before mating. Also, we investigatedthe determinants of wasp body size, and whether females (foundresses)adjust their offspring allocation strategies according to expectedoffspring size. We found that wasp size is larger in ovariesnear the center of the fig, and more females and fewer religiosamales are laid in such ovaries than in those further away. Thisprobably indicates that foundresses lay females when they areexpected to be large because their fitness is more body size–dependentthan that of religiosa males. We then discuss the implicationsof our findings for the study of alternative reproductive behaviorsand foundress offspring allocation strategies.