Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, Vol 54, Issue 10 B424-B431, Copyright © 1999 by The Gerontological Society of America

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Mortality oscillations induced by periodic starvation alter sex- mortality differentials in Mediterranean fruit flies

JR Carey, P Liedo, HG Muller, JL Wang and JM Chiou
Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis 95616, USA. jrcarey@ucdavis.edu

Sex-specific mortality rates of medflies were monitored in cages containing individuals of both sexes and with food (either sugar-only or full diet) removed every 2nd, 3rd, or 4th day (plus ad libitum controls). The general finding is that periodic starvation led to marked oscillations in raw mortality rates. The specific findings are as follows: (i) female medflies live longer than male medflies when they are subjected to periodic starvation; (ii) male medflies maintained on a full diet experience a catastrophic increase in mortality (40%) on the first day food is removed. This mortality surge was not observed for females on either diet or for males maintained on a sugar-only diet; (ii) life expectancy is inversely related to the amplitude of mortality oscillations caused by food deprivation; and (iv) the large perturbations in mortality at younger ages caused by periodic starvation has little effect on the amplitude of mortality at older ages. In general, our data shed new light on the complexity of the mortality response of medflies to both the type and availability of food and thus provide a complimentary perspective to findings from dietary restriction studies on both vertebrate and invertebrate systems.

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