Testing predictions of small brood models using parasitoid wasps

Question: How is variation in offspring size (between broods) related to brood size? Hypotheses: Variance in offspring size (between broods) should decrease with increasing brood size as predicted by Charnov and colleagues' (Charnov and Downhower, 1995; Charnov et al., 1995) small brood invariant. The range in resources put towards reproduction (for mothers producing a certain brood size) should be invariant over brood size (Downhower and Charnov, 1998). We also test assumptions underlying these predictions. Data studied: We use previously collected data on six parasitoid wasp species. Conclusions: As predicted, variance in offspring size among broods decreased with increasing brood size. However, this decrease did not follow closely the quantitative predictions of Charnov and colleagues (Charnov and Downhower, 1995; Charnov et al., 1995). We found some support for the prediction that the range in resources invested in reproduction is invariant over brood size. The assumption that mean offspring size is constant over brood size was violated in three of six species. The assumption that resources are shared equally between individuals within a brood generally held