The effect of male mating history on paternal investment, fecundity and female remating in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus

In insects and many other organisms, males can provide considerable nutrients to females via ejaculates, spermatophores or nuptial gifts (Thornhill 1976; Thornhill & Alcock 1983; Gwynne 1997). These nutritive contributions can impact an animal’s life-history and reproductive strategies (Trivers 1972; Dewsbury 1982) by influencing female fecundity, offspring size or quality, female mating behaviour and female longevity (Parker & Simmons 1989; Boggs 1990; Wedell 1996). For example, females obtaining more or larger spermatophores may lay more or larger eggs (e.g. Markow & Ankney 1984; Gwynne 1988; Ridley 1988; Andersson 1994; Fox, McLennan & Mousseau 1995a; Eberhard 1996), resulting in fecundity selection favouring males that can produce large ejaculates or spermatophores (e.g. Savalli & Fox 1998a). When male-provided nutrients are used by females for somatic maintenance or egg production, females should exhibit behaviours that increase the amount of nutrients that they obtain, such as choosing males that can provide more nutrients or remating with additional males (Trivers 1972; Andersson 1994). Male nutritive contributions can vary considerably within and among individuals. They can vary with male size, with large males typically providing larger packets (e.g. Steele 1986; Wicklund et al. 1993; Savalli & Fox 1998a), but can also vary independently of size owing to genetic variation among males (Savalli & Fox 1998b) or to variation in the environmental conditions experienced by males (Wedell 1996). An individual male’s contribution can also vary over time as he ages (Fox et al. 1995a), in response to social conditions (Gage & Baker 1991; Gage & Barnard 1996; He & Miyata 1997), or as a function of his mating history, with virgins generally providing more material than previously mated males Functional Ecology 1999 13, 169–177