Data from: The plastic fly: the effect of sustained fluctuations in adult food supply on life history traits

Many adult traits in Drosophila melanogaster show phenotypic plasticity,
and the effects of diet on traits such as lifespan and reproduction are
well explored. Although plasticity in response to food is still present in
older flies, it is unknown how sustained environmental variation affects
life-history traits. Here, we explore how such life-long fluctuations of
food supply affect weight and survival in groups of flies and affect
weight, survival and reproduction in individual flies. In both
experiments, we kept adults on constant high or low food and compared
these to flies that experienced fluctuations of food either once or twice
a week. For these ‘yoyo’ groups, the initial food level and the duration
of the dietary variation differed during adulthood, creating four ‘yoyo’
fly groups. In groups of flies, survival and weight were affected by adult
food. However, for individuals, survival and reproduction, but not weight,
were affected by adult food, indicating that single and group housing of
female flies affects life-history trajectories. Remarkably, both the
manner and extent to which life-history traits varied in relation to food
depended on whether flies initially experienced high or low food after
eclosion. We therefore conclude that the expression of life-history traits
in adult life is affected not only by adult plasticity, but also by early
adult life experiences. This is an important but often overlooked factor
in studies of life-history evolution and may explain variation in
life-history experiments.