No trade-off between growth rate and temperature stress resistance in four insect species

PLoS One. 2013 Apr 30;8(4):e62434. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062434. Print 2013.

Abstract

Although fast growth seems to be generally favored by natural selection, growth rates are rarely maximized in nature. Consequently, fast growth is predicted to carry costs resulting in intrinsic trade-offs. Disentangling such trade-offs is of great ecological importance in order to fully understand the prospects and limitations of growth rate variation. A recent study provided evidence for a hitherto unknown cost of fast growth, namely reduced cold stress resistance. Such relationships could be especially important under climate change. Against this background we here investigate the relationships between individual larval growth rate and adult heat as well as cold stress resistance, using eleven data sets from four different insect species (three butterfly species: Bicyclus anynana, Lycaena tityrus, Pieris napi; one Dipteran species: Protophormia terraenovae). Despite using different species (and partly different populations within species) and an array of experimental manipulations (e.g. different temperatures, photoperiods, feeding regimes, inbreeding levels), we were not able to provide any consistent evidence for trade-offs between fast growth and temperature stress resistance in these four insect species.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Butterflies / growth & development*
  • Butterflies / physiology
  • Cold Temperature
  • Diptera / growth & development*
  • Diptera / physiology
  • Female
  • Male
  • Stress, Physiological
  • Temperature

Grants and funding

IK was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG grant Fi 846/6-1 to KF) while preparing this manuscript. The authors acknowledge financial support from Greifswald University to KF and from the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO) and the KU Leuven research fund to RS. The funders played no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.