Costs and benefits of temporary brood desertion in a Neotropical harvestman (Arachnida: Opiliones)

Autor(es)

Chelini, Marie Claire ^[1] ; Machado, Glauco ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Ecol, Inst Biociencias, Programa Posgrad Ecol, BR-05508900 Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY; v. 66, n. 12, p. 1619-1627, DEC 2012.
• Citações Web of Science: 12

Resumo

Brood desertion is a life history strategy that allows parents to minimize costs related to parental care and increase their future fecundity. The harvestman Neosadocus maximus is an interesting model organism to study costs and benefits of temporary brood desertion because females abandon their clutches periodically and keep adding eggs to their clutches for some weeks. In this study, we tested if temporary brood desertion (a) imposes a cost to caring females by increasing the risk of egg predation and (b) offers a benefit to caring females by increasing fecundity as a result of increased foraging opportunities. With intensive field observations followed by a model selection approach, we showed that the proportion of consumed eggs was very low during the day and it was not influenced by the frequency of brood desertion. The proportion of consumed eggs was higher at night and it was negatively related to the frequency of brood desertion. However, frequent brood desertion did not result in higher fecundity, measured both as the number of eggs added to the current clutch and the probability of laying a second clutch over the course of the reproductive season. Considering that harvestmen are sensitive to dehydration, brood desertion during the day may attenuate the physiological stress of remaining exposed on the vegetation. Moreover, since brood desertion is higher during the day, when egg predation pressure is lower, caring females could be adjusting their maternal effort to the temporal variation in predation risk, which is regarded as the main cost of brood desertion in ectotherms. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 02/00381-0 - Investimento parental e evolução do comportamento sub-social em opiliões da família Gonyleptidae (Arachnida: Opiliones)
• Beneficiário: Glauco Machado
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Jovens Pesquisadores
• Processo FAPESP: 08/55867-0 - Custos e benefícios do cuidado maternal no opilião Neosadocus maximus (Opiliones: Gonyleptidae)
• Beneficiário: Marie Claire Chelini
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Mestrado
• Processo FAPESP: 08/06604-7 - Filogenia dos opiliões da família Gonyleptidae (Arachnida: Opiliones) baseada em caracteres morfológicos, moleculares e comportamentais
• Beneficiário: Ricardo Pinto da Rocha
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular