Sex- and trait-specific silver-spoon effects of developmental environments, on ageing

AbstractThe environment organisms experience during development can have
effects which carry over into their adult lives. These developmental
environments may not only affect adult traits at a given point in time,
but also how these traits change with age. Generally, stressful
developmental environments can lead to sub-optimal adult fitness traits
and a faster deterioration of these traits with age. But whether these
environments affect how performance traits change with age or whether they
affect males and females differently lacks evidence. Here, we test the
sex-specific effects of crowding during development on life history traits
such as lifespan, fecundity, age-dependent survival, and reproductive
senescence, as well as flight performance traits, in the seed
beetle-Callosobruchus maculatus. We show that although developmental
crowding has no effect on flight performance of either sex, on male adult
lifespan, or on female age-dependant survival, it is detrimental to female
lifespan and fecundity, as well as female age-dependent reproduction.
Additionally, we show that flight traits can change with age and differ
between males and females, which may be reflective of sex-specific
life-histories and behaviour. Our study has implications for understanding
how developmental environments affect life history and behavioural
strategies of both males and females.