The Cost and Benefice of Multiple Mating in Desert Locust Schistocerca gregaria

Quick Response Code Abstract: A better understanding the evolution of female desert locust multiple mating role is key to understand locust phase polyphenism and locust outbreaks. In this study, we analyse the cost and the benefice of multiple mating in desert locust Schistocerca gregaria. We demonstrated that female desert locust fecundity and fertility is not affected by multiple copulation. We found that multiple mating affect female lifespan where we observed an increase in mortality in females mated with more than one male comparatively to females mated with a single male. We found that survival of offspring from females mated with two, three, four males remain higher and our results show that about 90% of larvae reach at imago stage while only 74% of larvae reach at imago stage in females mated with single male. The sense of this result could be male-derived nutrients which are incorporated in female eggs thereafter in hatchlings. Multiple mating in S. gregaria acts as hormonal factor which controlling egg size and eggs contain which acted on offspring condition with a really impact on survival.