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A novel trade-off of insect diapause affecting a sequestered chemical defense

  • Plant Animal Interactions
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Abstract

Diapause allows insects to temporally avoid conditions that are unfavorable for development and reproduction. However, diapause may incur a cost in the form of reduced metabolic energy reserves, reduced potential fecundity, and missed reproductive opportunities. This study investigated a hitherto ignored consequence of diapause: trade-offs involving sequestered chemical defense. We examined the aristolochic acid defenses of diapausing and non-diapausing pipevine swallowtail butterflies, Battus philenor. Pipevine swallowtail larvae acquire these chemical defenses from their host plants. Butterflies that emerge following pupal diapause have significantly less fat, a female fitness correlate, compared to those that do not diapause. However, butterflies emerging from diapaused pupae are more chemically defended compared to those that have not undergone diapause. Furthermore, non-diapausing butterflies are confronted with older, lower quality host plants on which to oviposit. Thus, a trade-off exists where butterflies may have greater energy reserves at the cost of less chemical defense and sub-optimal food resources for their larvae, or have substantially less energetic reserves with the benefit of greater chemical defense and plentiful larval food resources.

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Acknowledgements

We thank K. Fordyce and M. Spencer for their assistance with butterfly rearing and Z. Marion for help with chemical analysis. Thanks to B. Fitzpatrick for help with the program R. This manuscript was improved by the helpful comments of M. Boercker, L. McDonald and two anonymous reviewers. Thanks to V. Boucher and D. Tolson of the UCNRS for access to Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve and Texas State University for access to Freeman Ranch. This study was supported by the University of Tennessee, Texas State University, Center for Population Biology (UC-Davis), and the U.S. National Science Foundation (DEB-9306721) to A.M.S. and (DBI-0317483) to A.M.S. and James Quinn and (DEB-0614223) to J.A.F.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    James A. Fordyce

  2. Department of Biology, Population and Conservation Biology Program, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA

    Chris C. Nice

  3. Section of Evolution and Ecology and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Arthur M. Shapiro

Authors
  1. James A. Fordyce
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  2. Chris C. Nice
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  3. Arthur M. Shapiro
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Correspondence to James A. Fordyce.

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Communicated by Richard Karban

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Fordyce, J.A., Nice, C.C. & Shapiro, A.M. A novel trade-off of insect diapause affecting a sequestered chemical defense. Oecologia 149, 101–106 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0428-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0428-x

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