Data from: A case for a joint strategy of diversified bet hedging and plasticity in the pea aphid wing polyphenism

Phenotypic plasticity and diversified bet hedging are strategies for coping with variable environments. Plasticity is favored when an organism can predict future conditions using environmental cues, while bet hedging is favored when predictive cues are not available. Theoretical analyses suggest that many organisms should use a mixture of both strategies, since environments often present both scenarios. Here we examine if the pea aphid wing polyphenism, a well-known case of plasticity, is potentially a mixture of plasticity and bet hedging. In this polyphenism, asexual females produce more winged offspring in crowded conditions, and wingless offspring in uncrowded conditions. We find that pea aphids use plasticity to respond to crowding and we find considerable genetic variation for this response. We further show that individual aphids produce both winged and wingless offspring, consistent with the variability expected in a bet-hedging trait. We conclude that the pea aphid wing polyphenism system is likely a mixture of plasticity and bet hedging. Our study adds to a limited list of empirical studies examining mixed strategy usage, and suggests that mixed strategies may be common in dispersal traits.