Does it pay to delay? Flesh flies show adaptive plasticity in reproductive timing

Life-history plasticity is widespread among organisms. However, an important question is whether it is adaptive. Most models for plasticity in life-history timing predict that animals, once they have reached the minimal nutritional threshold under poor conditions, will accelerate development or time to reproduction. Adaptive delays in reproduction are not common, especially in short-lived species. Examples of adaptive reproductive delays exist in mammalian populations experiencing strong interspecific (e.g., predation) and intraspecific (e.g., infanticide) competition. But are there other environmental factors that may trigger an adaptive delay in reproductive timing? We show that the short-lived flesh fly Sarcophaga crassipalpis will delay reproduction under nutrient-poor conditions, even though it has already met the minimal nutritional threshold for reproduction. We test whether this delay strategy is an adaptive response allowing the scavenger time to locate more resources by experimentally providing supplemental protein pulses (early, mid and late) throughout the reproductive delay period. Flies receiving additional protein produced more and larger eggs, demonstrating a benefit of the delay. In addition, by tracking the allocation of carbon from the pulses using stable isotopes, we show that flies receiving earlier pulses incorporated more carbon into eggs and somatic tissue than those given a later pulse. These results indicate that the reproductive delay in S. crassipalpis is consistent with adaptive post-threshold plasticity, a nutritionally linked reproductive strategy that has not been reported previously in an invertebrate species.