Parental relationship between guardian males of Thoropa taophora (Anura, Cycloramphidae) and their saxicolous offsprings

• Grant number: 12/00205-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): October 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology
• Principal Investigator: Célio Fernando Baptista Haddad
• Grantee: Fábio Perin de Sá
• Supervisor: Kelly R. Zamudio
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Cornell University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 10/14117-9 - Reproductive Biology of Hylodes cf. ornatus, Serra do Japi, Jundiaí, São Paulo (Anura, Hylodidae), BP.MS

Abstract

The reproductive success of individuals in a population of one species is strongly associated with individual traits as well as the social and ecological contexts in which the breeding activity occurs. Individual factors that influence fitness can often be identified, however how variation in social and ecological conditions alters the patterns of reproductive success within populations is still considerably less know. We propose to characterize how the reproductive success of the adult individuals of one population of Thoropa taophora changes among and within different breeding sites that for this species at the site sampled is a reproductive limiting factor. Thoropa taophora is an endemic neotropical anuran species that occupies saxicolous environments of Serra do Mar Rain Forest and coastal regions of São Paulo state, Brazil. This anuran places its terrestrial eggs in wet seeps in rock outcroppings near seashores that maintain a film of water that flows on the rocky surface, where their semiterrestrial tadpoles develop until metamorphosis. Males compete for the limited number of breeding territories (water seeps) and males have parental care, guarding the egg masses. These behavioral characteristics associated with the mating system of the species are directly associated with the reproductive success of each adult individual within a population. We sampled tadpoles in eight different rock seeps at various distances from each other and, using molecular techniques for estimation of relatedness and paternity, we propose to characterize the behavioral mating system and the consequent fitness of the adults of T. taophora. Specifically we will test the hypotheses that: (1) the defense of reproductive territories increases the reproductive success of the males by the exclusion of competitors; (2) the defense of reproductive territories increases the reproductive success of the males that can obtain more than one female for amplexus, with a single male being guardian of the spawning from distinct females, and (3) if there is sharing of the same reproductive territory by more than one male, the relatedness among them will be higher than any other male of the population, with kin selection operating. Combined, these data will allow an unusually deep analysis of the factors contributing to individual reproductive success in males of T. taophora which competes for limited reproductive sites. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MURALIDHAR, P.; DE SA, F. P.; HADDAD, C. F. B.; ZAMUDIO, K. R.. Kin-bias, breeding site selection and female fitness in a cannibalistic Neotropical frog. Molecular Ecology, v. 23, n. 2, p. 453-463, FEB 2014. (12/00205-9, 08/50928-1)

DE SA, FABIO P.; CONSOLMAGNO, RAFAEL C.; MURALIDHAR, PAVITRA; BRASILEIRO, CINTHIA A.; ZAMUDIO, KELLY R.; HADDAD, CELIO F. B.. Unexpected reproductive fidelity in a polygynous frog. SCIENCE ADVANCES, v. 6, n. 33, AUG 2020. (14/24972-4, 13/50741-7, 08/50928-1, 18/17993-6, 12/17220-0, 16/06876-3, 12/00205-9)