Relationship of Age Patterns of Fecundity to Mortality, Longevity, and Lifetime Reproduction in a Large Cohort of Mediterranean Fruit Fly Females
Journal
The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences
Journal Volume
53A
Journal Issue
4
Start Page
B245-B251
ISSN
1079-5006
1758-535X
Date Issued
1998-07-01
Author(s)
Abstract
Daily reproduction was monitored throughout the lives of 1000 individual female Mediterranean fruit flies (Ceratitis capitata). Inasmuch as the average female medfly lived 35.6 days and laid 740 eggs in her lifetime, the overall data set consisted of information on around 740,000 eggs distributed over 35,600 fly-days. Results described include the frequency distributions of eggs/day at young (≤30 days), middle (31-60 days), and older (61-90 days) ages, the relationship between individual life span and lifetime reproduction, the distribution of deaths for non-egg layers versus egg layers, and density plots for daily egg production relative to both lifetime reproduction and life span. One of the more surprising results was the lack of correlation of the total number of eggs laid by females at younger ages (all ages under 30) and subsequent reproduction and life span. Technical and conceptual implications for analyses of reproductive data on other species and groups are briefly discussed.
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Type
journal article