A Test of the Principle of Allocation Using Two Sympatric Species of Cockroaches

The "principle of allocation" underlies much of current life history theory, but has never been critically tested. Although the cockroaches Periplaneta americana and P. brunnea are closely related and morphologically very similar, P. brunnea produces an ootheca nearly twice the mass of P. americana's. The principle of allocation predicts that P. brunnea should take longer to produce an ootheca, or that some other factor must be traded off. The …