Inbreeding alters context‐dependent reproductive effort and immunity in male crickets

Infection can cause hosts to drastically alter their investment in key life‐history traits of reproduction and defence. Infected individuals are expected to increase investment in defence (e.g., by increasing immune function) and, due to trade‐offs, investment in other traits (e.g., current reproduction) should decrease. However, the terminal investment hypothesis postulates that decreased lifespan due to infection and the associated reduction in the expectation for future offspring will favour increased investment towards current reproduction. Variation in intrinsic condition will likely influence shifts in reproductive investment post‐infection, but this is often not considered in such assessments. For example, the extent of inbreeding can significantly impact an individual's lifetime fitness and may influence its reproductive behaviour following a threat of infection. Here, we investigated the effects of inbreeding status on an individual's reproductive investment upon infection, inc...