Trade-off between fecundity and survival generates stabilizing selection on gall size

This data comes from observational and experimental studies of the cynipid gall wasp Callirhytis quercusbatatoides that induces multi-chambered galls on the stem of its host plant Quercus virginiana. We first quantified this trade-off in natural populations by documenting two relationships: a positive association between the trait gall size and fecundity, as larger galls contain more offspring, and a negative association between gall size and survival, as larger galls are attacked by birds at a higher rate. Next, we performed a field-based experimental evolution study where birds were excluded from the entire canopy of 11 large host trees for five years.