Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri - Columbia, Columbia, MO, United States of America.
Environmental Sciences Department, University of Puerto Rico -Rio Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
PeerJ. 2022 Jun 16;10:e13616. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13616. eCollection 2022.
In species with parental care behaviors, parents may adjust the intensity and duration of their care if fluctuation in factors such as environmental variables or body condition affects offspring survival. In the face of environmental changes, many egg-laying species remain with their clutch for extended periods if this behavioral adjustment provides tangible benefits to the offspring. However, the length of time parents stay with the offspring may also differ depending on the individual's body condition. In the glass frog family (Centrolenidae), several species exhibit long-term egg attendance in which they remain with their clutch for several days after oviposition takes place. For some of them, changes in environmental variables lead to increased parental care efforts. For the species in which parents remain with their offspring for a short period (less than 24 hours), it is less clear if this constitutes parenting behavior, and whether parents adjust their efforts as a function of environmental change or the parent's body condition remains unexplored. We studied a population of the Emerald Glass Frog, , a species that exhibits a short period of quiescence after oviposition (less than three hours). Our study aimed to determine whether females alter the length of their post-oviposition quiescence period in response to changes in environmental variables (i.e., temperature, humidity, rainfall, and mean wind speed) or female body condition. Pairs in amplexus were captured in the field and transported to semi-natural enclosures to record the duration of post-oviposition quiescence using infrared cameras. Females' post-oviposition quiescence lasted an average of 67.4 ± 26.6 min (range = 22.7-158.3 min). We did not find a significant relationship between the duration of the post-oviposition quiescence and any of the environmental variables tested. Similarly, post-oviposition quiescence duration was not influenced by female body condition. Because the variation observed in the duration of post-oviposition quiescence was not related to changes in extrinsic (environmental) or intrinsic (body condition) factors, we found no evidence that females of modify their post-oviposition behavior in response to any of the variables examined in this study. Future research investigating the adaptive significance of the post-oviposition quiescence observed in this species is needed to understand how this behavior is related to parental care efforts.
在具有亲代抚育行为的物种中，如果环境变量或身体状况等因素的波动影响后代的生存，父母可能会调整抚育的强度和持续时间。面对环境变化，如果这种行为调整对后代有明显的好处，许多产卵物种会延长孵卵时间。然而，父母与后代待在一起的时间长短也可能因个体的身体状况而异。在玻璃蛙科（Centrolenidae）中，有几个物种表现出长期的孵卵行为，即在产卵后会持续几天与卵一起。对于其中一些物种，环境变量的变化会导致亲代抚育努力的增加。对于那些父母与后代待在一起时间较短（不到 24 小时）的物种，尚不清楚这是否构成亲代抚育行为，以及父母是否会根据环境变化或自身身体状况调整抚育努力，这些问题仍有待探讨。我们研究了一种短时间安静期的 Emerald Glass Frog，在产卵后（不到三小时）会进入短时间的安静期。我们的研究旨在确定雌性是否会根据环境变量（即温度、湿度、降雨量和平均风速）或自身身体状况的变化来改变产卵后的安静期长度。在野外捕捉到抱对的雌雄对，并将其运送到半自然围栏中，使用红外摄像机记录产卵后的安静期持续时间。雌性产卵后的安静期平均持续 67.4±26.6 分钟（范围为 22.7-158.3 分钟）。我们没有发现产卵后的安静期持续时间与任何测试环境变量之间存在显著关系。同样，产卵后的安静期持续时间也不受雌性身体状况的影响。由于观察到的产卵后安静期持续时间的变化与外在（环境）或内在（身体状况）因素的变化无关，我们没有发现证据表明 会根据本研究中检查的任何变量来改变其产卵后的行为。为了了解这种行为与亲代抚育努力的关系，需要进一步研究这种物种的产卵后安静期的适应意义。
