Comparative reproductive energetics of the sexes in the cicada Cystosoma saundersii.

The reproductive expenditure of an individual animal consists of 3 types of effort: gonadal-gametal, parental and mating. The components that contribute to these categories were identified and quantified for Cystosoma saundersii. The total reproductive effort of female was 1.6 times as great as the effort of males. Most of the expenditure of females is concentrated on gonadal-gametal effort, most of the effort of males is directed to mating effort. Constraints on the amount of reproductive effort of each sex are examined. The annual expenditures on each component of the reproductive effort, and on non-reproductive processes, were quantified. The productivity of this species is 0.7 kJ m-2 yr-1, of which only 9% of production is devoted to synthesis of eggs.