DIETARY MEDIATION OF MATERNAL AGE EFFECTS ON OFFSPRING PERFORMANCE IN A SEED BEETLE (COLEOPTERA, BRUCHIDAE)

1. In many animals, egg size and offspring performance (e.g. development time, body size and survivorship) are observed to decrease with increasing maternal age. This observed maternal age effect is generally attributed to a depletion of the female's resources. 2. We first quantify the influence of maternal age on offspring performance of the seed beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus. We then manipulate a female's nutritional status by providing either unlimited access to yeast and sugar-water, or by completely preventing access to yeast and sugar-water, and examine whether adult feeding reduces the magnitude of maternal age effects on egg size and offspring performance. 3. Offspring egg-to-adult survivorship decreased, while offspring development time increased, with increasing maternal age. There was at best a very weak effect of maternal age on offspring body size and no detectable effect on the proportion of eggs which hatched. 4. Adult feeding on yeast and sugar-water resulted in reduced development time and increased survivorship of offspring produced by old mothers, but had no detectable effect on offspring body size.