MILLER, Christine W.*; EMLEN, Douglas J.; University of Montana; University of Montana: Maternal effects shift the allometry of a sexually selected trait in the heliconia bug

Sexually selected traits are especially sensitive to environmental conditions. Mothers frequently influence the environment experienced by their offspring, and, thus, play an important role in the expression of sexually selected traits. The neotropical heliconia bug, Leptoscelis tricolor, oviposits on several species of heliconia plants. Results suggest that maternal choice of host plant is important for sexually selected trait size in offspring and shifts the scaling relationship of these traits with body size. Such environmentally-induced changes in the relative size of sexually selected traits to body size might be important to our understanding of the use of these traits as indicators of individual quality. Additionally, these results suggest exciting new directions for research on the ecological and evolutionary importance of maternal effects for sexually selected traits.