Offspring diet supersedes the transgenerational effects of parental diet in a specialist herbivore Neolema abbreviata under manipulated foliar nitrogen variability

AbstractDiet quality influences organismal fitness within and across generations. For herbivorous insects, the transgenerational effects of diet remain relatively underexplored. Using a 3 × 3 × 2 factorial experiment, we evaluated how N enrichment in parental diets ofNeolema abbreviata (Larcordaire) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), a biological control agent forTradescantia fluminensis Vell. (Commelinaceae), may influence life history and performance of F1 and F2 offspring under reciprocal experiments. We found limited transgenerational effects of foliar nitrogen variability among life ‐history traits in both larvae and adults. Larval weight gain and mortality were responsive to parental diet contrary to feeding damage, pupal weight and duration taken to pupate. There were significant parental diet × test interactions in larval feeding damage, weight gain, pupal weight and time to pupation. Generally, offspring from parents under high N plants performed better even under low N test plants. Adult traits including oviposition selection, feeding weight and longevity did not respond to the effects of parental diet nor its interaction with test diet as was the case in the larv al stage. However, the main effects of test diet were more important in determining adult performance in both generations suggesting limited sensitivity to parental diet in the adult stage. Our results show conflicting responses to parental diet between larvae and adults of the same generation among an inse...

Source: Insect Science - November 26, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Abongile Mbande, Michelle Tedder, Frank Chidawanyika Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research