Premium
LONG‐TERM COST OF REPRODUCTION WITH AND WITHOUT ACCELERATED SENESCENCE IN CALLOSOBRUCHUS MACULATUS: ANALYSIS OF AGE‐SPECIFIC MORTALITY
Author(s) -
Tatar Marc,
Carey James R.,
Vaupel James W.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1993.tb02156.x
Subject(s) - biology , callosobruchus maculatus , reproduction , senescence , mating , mortality rate , demography , zoology , physiology , ecology , pest analysis , botany , genetics , sociology
Age‐specific mortality is measured to characterize the costs of reproduction in the beetle Callosobruchus maculatus , providing explicit details of the timing, duration, magnitude, and acceleration of mortality. We experimentally manipulated reproductive effort in four cohorts of 200 individually housed females by controlling exposure to males and to an artificial oviposition substrate. We demonstrate that (1) early reproduction produces long‐term increases in age‐specific mortality; (2) egg‐laying effort affects the onset of age‐specific mortality but not its shape or rate of change; and (3) mating with subsequent reproduction increases the rate of change in age‐specific mortality relative to virgins. Accelerated senescence is defined demographically as an increase in the rate of change of age‐specific mortality. Our results challenge the hypothesis that reproductive effort accelerates senescence but provides evidence that mating itself may have this effect.