Facultative sex ratio shifts by a herbivorous insect in response to variation in host plant quality.

Abstract

We tested predictions of sex allocation theory with a series of field experiments on sex allocation in an herbivorous, haplodiploid, sawfly, Euura lasiolepis. Our experiments demonstrated the following points. 1) Adult females allocated progeny sex in response to plant growth. 2) Population sex ratios varied in response to plant quality, being male-biased where plant growth was slow and female-biased where plant growth was rapid. 3) Family sex ratios varied in response to plant quality, being male-biased on slow-growing plants and female-biased on rapidly-growing plants. 4) Female fitness increased more rapidly as the result of developing on more rapidly-growing plants than male mass. We conclude from these results that there are unequal returns on investment in male and female progeny. This results in facultatively biased sawfly sex ratios as an adaptive response to variation in plant quality.