The adaptive significance of male parental care in a neotropical frog (reproduction, anura)
Albany, NY, State Univ. of New York, Diss., 1984
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| Sprache: | eng |
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Tag hinzufügen | Zusammenfassung: | Albany, NY, State Univ. of New York, Diss., 1984 This study describes the reproductive ecology and parental care of the neotropical frog Eleutherodactylus coqui, measures the benefits and costs of parental care to individual reproductive success, and integrates benefits and costs into a single view of the adaptive significance of parental care for this species. Eleutherodactylus coqui males call from elevated perches at night. Eggs are laid in non-aquatic nest sites and undergo direct development, hatching as tiny frogs in 17-26 days. Clutch size (mean = 28 eggs) is correlated with female body size. Parental care is performed exclusively by males, who attend eggs and hatchlings. Males attend their clutches 97.4% of the time by day and 75.8% of the time at night. Most of this time is spent brooding eggs. Males also defend eggs against cannibalistic intruders. Care is provided throughout development; neither nest fidelity nor brooding frequency changes from oviposition to hatching. Parental care significantly increases hatching success. In a field experiment, clutches from which parental males were removed failed 3.4 times as often as control clutches (males not removed). Experimental clutches suffered greater mortality from desiccation and cannibalism than controls. Plotting average hatching success of experimental clutches against the developmental stage at which males were removed yielded a convex second order function. Hence, the benefits of parental care accelerate throughout development. Parental males do less feeding than non-parental males and suffer small but significant losses in body mass during parental care. Parental males also call less than non-parental males and sacrifice approximately one additional mating during a 20-day period of parental care. A marginal value model of parental care is proposed which integrates the time-dependent benefits of attending eggs and the consequent costs of reduced reproductive activity. Using empirically determined values for E. coqui, the model indicates that by providing care throughout pre-hatching development, males maximize their lifetime reproductive success. The model also indicates that, starting with no care, either sex would have been favored to evolve care in E. coqui. Male coquies may have evolved parental care because of their initial association with eggs at defended retreat sites. |
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| Beschreibung: | 166 S. |