Abstract
Sexual choice by male stink bugs is important because females that experience food shortages lay fewer eggs with lower viability compared with well-fed females. In this study, we investigated whether Podisus nigrispinus (Dallas) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) males fed with a low-quality diet during its nymphal stage show selectivity for sexual partners resulting in high-quality progeny. Lightweight males and females were obtained from nymphs fed weekly with Tenebrio molitor L. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) pupae. By contrast, heavyweight males and females were fed three times a week and received an extra nutritional source: cotton leaves, Gossypium hirsutum L. (Malvaceae). Lightweight males preferred to mate with heavy females (77.78 ± 14.69%), whereas heavyweight males did not discriminated between light or heavyweight females. Females mated with lightweight males showed similar levels of reproduction to those mated with heavyweight males. The results provide an indication of the importance of male and female body weight for sexual selection in Asopinae stink bugs.
Highlights
Stink bugs of the genus Podisus (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae: Asopinae) can reduce population levels of defoliating Lepidoptera in agricultural and forested areas
We investigated the hypothesis that males of P. nigrispinus, reared on a low-quality diet during their immature stages, prefer sexual partners fed on a high-quality diet with the aim to achieve greater reproductive fitness
The research was conducted in a greenhouse at the Department of Animal Biology and at the Laboratory of Biological Control of Insects (LBCI) in the Institute of Biotechnology Applied to Agriculture (BIOAGRO) of the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) in Viçosa, Minas Gerais state, Brazil
Summary
Stink bugs of the genus Podisus (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae: Asopinae) can reduce population levels of defoliating Lepidoptera in agricultural and forested areas. Over the past two decades, research has focused on rearing and release technologies with these insects for using (Jusselino-Filho et al, 2003; Lacerda et al, 2004; Torres et al, 2006). Asopinae stink bugs, such as Podisus maculiventris (Say) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), are unable to control immediately pests that have an unsynchronized population increase over a short timescale, which is often the case in monocultures (O’Neil et al, 1996). Studies about sexual selection behavior of these insects would be go some way to answering questions about their reproductive ecology
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