| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,680,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,080,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Sex allocation is one of the most successful areas in evolutionary biology. However, contrary to the prediction of theory, the females of Melittobia wasps produce extremely and constantly female-biased sex ratios (1-3% males). (1) An experiment that artificially manipulated offspring sex ratios and measured fitness showed that an observed sex ratio in Melittobia (about 2%) is not beneficial against higher sex ratios (about 10 or 20%) in a laboratory condition. This suggests that it is important to consider not only direct fitness but also indirect fitness with relatedness between ovipositing females on the same host in the field. (2) The females of Melittobia favored laying eggs on a host where other females have already been laying eggs, suggesting that females on a host could be sisters or relatives. (3) We developed microsatellite primers, which could be used for a future research analyzing population genetics to investigate the relatedness between ovipositing females in the field.
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