Larval diet quality affects allocation tradeoffs in both larvae and adult stages of a moth

Resource availability during development is a key driver of physiological trade-offs, yet how early nutritional environments shape allocation strategies across life stages remains unclear. During development, insect larvae must balance investment between growth and immune defense, but the downstream consequences of these allocation decisions for adult traits are not well understood. We examined how larval diet quality influences tradeoffs among immune investment, growth, and adult morphology in the hawkmoth Hyles lineata (Sphingidae). Larvae reared on higher-quality diets exhibited enhanced immune responses, along with faster growth and greater body mass. However, immune investment varied by component: total hemocyte count (THC) increased under both medium- and high-quality diets, while phenoloxidase (PO) activity was elevated only under high-quality diet conditions, indicating a higher nutritional threshold. Interestingly, body mass did not predict hemocyte count, and a negative relati..., , # Larval diet quality affects allocation tradeoffs in both larvae and adult stages of a moth

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.9zw3r22tz](10.5061/dryad.9zw3r22tz)

## Description of the data and file structure

File 1: Diet quality, weight gain, THC, and PO (Diet_quality__weight_gain__THC_and_PO.xlsx)- Diet quality is represented as (1) 60% diet, (2) 80% diet, or (3) 100% diet (standard rearing diet). In the 60% and 80% diets, the nutritional components of the standard (100%) diet were reduced proportionally, and the remaining volume was filled with 50% cellulose (Alphacel, ICN, Aurora, OH, USA) to maintain bulk without adding nutritional value. The total hemocyte count and phenoloxidase activity (PO) are measured from the 16-day-old larvae. Missing data represented as n/a. 

File 2: Stressed vs control (Stressed_vs_control_Calories)- To assess how larval-stage stress influences energy allocation and subsequent adult body size, we reared larvae under our three dietary treatments and divided ...,