Reproductive Patterns and Resource Allocation in Tropical Butterflies: Influence of Adult Diet and Seasonal Phenotype on Fecundity, Longevity and Egg Size

Abstract

reduced realised and potential fecundity, laid proportionally fewer eggs, and had a shorter oviposition period compared with the wet-season form. Egg weight increased with female age in the wet-season form but declined in the dry-season form. Although the dry-season form laid larger eggs it still had a much lower reproductive effort, indicating that diapause imposes a substantial cost to reproduction. We tentatively conclude that this cost is the result of an adjustment in resource allocation between soma (body size and structure to increase longevity) and reproductive reserves acquired during the larval feeding period. Comparison of the reproductive patterns between the three species (i.e. when both seasonal form and adult diet are standardised)