Data from: Environmental stress influences reproductive success in male spider mites
Data files
Nov 14, 2025 version files 16.67 KB
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Noel_et_al_Ecol_Ent.xlsx
14.86 KB
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README.md
1.81 KB
Abstract
Environmental stressors can limit access to resources in numerous ways, shaping an organism's condition and fitness within and across generations. Resource constraints are especially important for sexual selection, as many components of mating behaviour, from sexual signalling to sperm production, are condition-dependent. Environmental stress can therefore be an important ecological mediator of patterns of sexual selection. In this study, we measured condition-dependent male reproductive success in the haplodiploid spider mite Tetranychus urticae. Males were placed in different host-plant environments, generating different stress levels (bean = low stress, tomato = intermediate, and tomato with cadmium = high stress) during their juvenile stage. The impact of the male juvenile environment was measured by placing males, once adult, with females from a low-stress environment. We measured several fitness traits for males, including mating success, partner fecundity, number of female offspring reaching adulthood, and offspring sex ratio. Juvenile environment did not influence adult male mating success, but males from the high stress environment suffered reduced reproductive success, producing fewer female offspring, suggesting that stressed males either pass fewer sperm or less/lower quality seminal fluid to females if they do mate. Likewise, offspring sex ratios were correlated with male stress, with sex ratios becoming less female-biased with increasing juvenile stress. The male juvenile environment in a haplodiploid species can reduce their reproductive success and prevent females mated to these males from producing optimal offspring sex ratios. Environmental stress experienced by adults can therefore impact both males and females and, through effects on sex allocation, their offspring.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.tx95x6b9x
Description of the data and file structure
Files and variables
File: Noel_et_al_Ecol_Ent.xlsx
Description: This is an excel file containing the data from the experiment.
Variables
- 'ind’ is an individual number identifier for each replicate male in the experiment.
- ‘block’ denotes the two different temporal blocks in the experiment ‘A’ and ‘B’.
- ‘box’ is the box the different replicates were contained in during the experiment.
- ‘Male_environment’ is the plant environment the males experienced as juveniles; bean, tomato or tomato cadmium.
- ‘Virgin_mother’ states whether the male came from a virgin or non-virgin mother. Note there are some blank cells as data was missing for some males.
- ‘Fecundity’ is the number of eggs laid by the female.
- ‘Female_survival’ is whether the female the males was mated to survived until day 10; ‘1’ denotes she was alive, ‘0’ that she was dead and an empty cell that the female was missing.
- ‘Male_survival’ is whether the focal male survived until day 10; ‘1’ denotes he was alive, ‘0’ that he was dead and an empty cell that the male was missing.
- ‘Female_offspring’ is the total number of female offspring that became adult.
- ‘Male_offspring’ is the total number of male offspring that became adult.
- ‘Mating_success’ is whether there was successful fertilisation, measured as the presence of female offspring.
- ‘Total_offspring’ is the total number of male and female offspring that became adult.
Code/software
OpenOffice/Microsoft Excel can be used to view the file.
