Reproductive capacities of tropical and temperate populations of D. melanogaster were compared using three complementary techniques: (1) measure of egg production by females grown in the laboratory under uncrowded conditions and provided as adults with abundant food; (2) study of egg production of flies of unknown ages, collected in nature and then kept in similar conditions; and (3) analysis of ovarian activity of wild females dissected just after their capture.Tropical populations showed a lower fecundity in the laboratory and this was also observed in laboratory reared adults. On the average, flies also appeared to be older in the tropics than in temperate countries. These data, together with ecological observations showing that tropical populations live in a more predictable and stable environment, suggest that temperature populations are r-selected, while tropical ones are K-selected. The study of ovarian activity of wild females failed however to confirm this expectation. Tropical flies, which have a lower genetic fecundity, generally appeared to produce more propagules than did temperate flies. Such a contradiction shows how the ideas of r- and K-selection are difficult to apply to natural populations of Drosophila. Population density and interindividual competition are probably not the main selective forces in nature. Attention must also be paid to the necessity of exploring the environment to find resources, to the role of predation and parasitism, and to the occurrence in temperate countries of seasonal fluctuations with different selective pressures on successive generations.

Drosophila melanogaster larvae were reared at various constant temperatures ranging from 12° C to 32° C and adults were transferred at the usual temperature of 25° after emergence. Daily egg production and egg hatchability were measured for the whole lifetime. The adults, of the same average genotype and kept in identical conditions, showed considerable variation in reproductive capacity. For adults grown at an optimum temperature (21° or 25°) the number of offspring produced was about 2500; this number dropped below 500 when development took place either at a lower or higher temperature. Several physiological changes explain these deleterious effects: male sterility at low or high temperature, variation in ovariole number, and in rates of oogenesis and senescence. Only the male sterility was cured by the return to 25°; all the other modifications were permanent. The significance of this epigenetic load in the life strategy of the species is discussed.

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