Sample Data

Students in the Fall 2006 ecology course at Emory University carried out a reciprocal transplant experiment using bean beetles from mung bean and black-eye pea stock cultures. Females from the two host types (maternal hosts) were allowed to lay eggs on either mung beans or black-eye peas (offspring hosts). Beans with single eggs were isolated into wells of tissue culture plates and maintained at 30C until emergence. Students recorded sex, time to emergence, and mass at emergence.

Offspring host did not have a significant effect on percent adult emergence for either maternal host (BEP: X² = 0.44, P = 0.51; mung: X² = 0.38, P = 0.54).

Because females are significantly larger than males in bean beetles, the data for the sexes were analyzed separately. For both males and females, mass at emergence was not significantly affected by maternal host, offspring host, or the interaction between the two (2 x 2 ANOVA: P>0.07 for main effects and interaction for both sexes).

In contrast, the interaction between maternal host and offspring host significantly influenced time to emergence for both males (F_{1, 99} = 9.4, P < 0.01) and females (F_{1, 118} = 6.3, P = 0.01). Interestingly, however, time to emergence was longer when offspring were reared on the host from which their mother emerged.