Parental investment related to social systems in microtines

Summary Laboratory offspring of wild-caught voles Clethrionomys glareolus and Microtus agrestis, bred for 1 year under constant conditions, were examined with regard to sex ratios and weights at weaning and at 2 months of age. C. glareolus exhibits female territoriality and M. agrestis male territoriality in summer. The adults die away in late summer-autumn. Early-summer young mature in the year of birth but late-summer young do not reach maturity until the following year. C. glareolus young showed a male bias in early summer and a female bias in late summer. Conditions were the opposite but less clear in M. agrestis. C. glareolus males grew comparatively faster than M. agrestis males and showed a markedly higher early summer male: female weight ratio at 2 months of age. Maternal investment thus appears clearly related to the social system; the sex with the largest number and highest quality of young was that which was not limited in number by territoriality. However, the investment depended also on the time until maturation of the young.