Data from: Environmental stress influences reproductive success in male spider mites

Environmental stressors can limit access to resources in numerous ways,
shaping an organism's condition and fitness within and across
generations. Resource constraints are especially important for sexual
selection, as many components of mating behaviour, from sexual signalling
to sperm production, are condition-dependent. Environmental stress can
therefore be an important ecological mediator of patterns of sexual
selection. In this study, we measured condition-dependent male
reproductive success in the haplodiploid spider mite Tetranychus urticae.
Males were placed in different host-plant environments, generating
different stress levels (bean = low stress, tomato = intermediate, and
tomato with cadmium = high stress) during their juvenile stage. The impact
of the male juvenile environment was measured by placing males, once
adult, with females from a low-stress environment. We measured several
fitness traits for males, including mating success, partner fecundity,
number of female offspring reaching adulthood, and offspring sex ratio.
Juvenile environment did not influence adult male mating success, but
males from the high stress environment suffered reduced reproductive
success, producing fewer female offspring, suggesting that stressed males
either pass fewer sperm or less/lower quality seminal fluid to females if
they do mate. Likewise, offspring sex ratios were correlated with male
stress, with sex ratios becoming less female-biased with increasing
juvenile stress. The male juvenile environment in a haplodiploid species
can reduce their reproductive success and prevent females mated to these
males from producing optimal offspring sex ratios. Environmental stress
experienced by adults can therefore impact both males and females and,
through effects on sex allocation, their offspring.