Ringler Eva, Pašukonis Andrius, Ringler Max, Huber Ludwig
Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, and University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Department of Integrative Zoology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Anim Behav. 2016 Apr;114:173-179. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.02.008.
The ability to differentiate between one's own and foreign offspring ensures the exclusive allocation of costly parental care to only related progeny. The selective pressure to evolve offspring discrimination strategies is largely shaped by the likelihood and costs of offspring confusion. We hypothesize that males and females with different reproductive and spatial behaviours face different risks of confusing their own with others' offspring, and this should favour differential offspring discrimination strategies in the two sexes. In the brilliant-thighed poison frog, , males and females are highly polygamous, terrestrial clutches are laid in male territories and females abandon the clutch after oviposition. We investigated whether males and females differentiate between their own offspring and unrelated young, whether they use direct or indirect cues and whether the concurrent presence of their own clutch is essential to elicit parental behaviours. Males transported tadpoles regardless of location or parentage, but to a lesser extent in the absence of their own clutch. Females discriminated between clutches based on exact location and transported tadpoles only in the presence of their own clutch. This sex-specific selectivity of males and females during parental care reflects the differences in their respective costs of offspring confusion, resulting from differences in their spatial and reproductive behaviours.
区分自己的后代和外来后代的能力确保了将昂贵的亲代抚育专门分配给有亲缘关系的后代。进化后代识别策略的选择压力很大程度上由后代混淆的可能性和成本所塑造。我们推测，具有不同繁殖和空间行为的雄性和雌性面临着将自己的后代与其他后代混淆的不同风险，而这应该会促使两性采取不同的后代识别策略。在华丽大腿箭毒蛙中，雄性和雌性都是高度多配偶制的，陆地产卵在雄性领地内，雌性产卵后会离开卵块。我们研究了雄性和雌性是否能区分自己的后代和无关的幼体，它们是使用直接线索还是间接线索，以及自己的卵块同时存在对于引发亲代行为是否至关重要。无论位置或亲源关系如何，雄性都会运送蝌蚪，但在没有自己卵块的情况下运送程度较低。雌性根据确切位置区分卵块，并且只在有自己卵块的情况下运送蝌蚪。亲代抚育期间雄性和雌性这种性别特异性的选择性反映了它们各自因空间和繁殖行为差异而导致的后代混淆成本的差异。
