Abstract
Spreading reproduction across time or space can optimize fitness by minimizing the risks for offspring survival in varying and unpredictable environments. Poison frogs (Dendrobatidae) are characterized by complex spatial and reproductive behaviour, such as territoriality, prolonged courtship and parental care. The partitioning of larvae from terrestrial clutches across several water bodies is mainly known from species with carnivorous tadpoles that allocate their tadpoles in very small pools, where limited food availability is accompanied by an increased risk of cannibalism. However, little is known about the deposition behaviour of non-carnivorous species that use medium-sized to large pools. In the present study, we investigated whether the Neotropical poison frog Allobates femoralis exhibits brood-partitioning behaviour when males transport tadpoles 3 weeks after oviposition. We sampled 30 artificial water bodies for tadpoles, which we genotyped at seven highly polymorphic microsatellite loci. Based on the reconstructed pedigree, we show that A. femoralis males distribute larvae of single and of successive clutches across several water bodies. The number of pools used was significantly associated with the number of clutches per male. Ninety-three percent of the males that were assigned to more than one clutch spread their tadpoles across several water bodies. Given the highly variable and unpredictable biotic and abiotic conditions in tropical rainforest, at the spatial scale of the study species’ behaviour, we interpret this behaviour as bet-hedging to improve offspring survival.
Highlights
Variable and unpredictable environmental conditions are expected to favour the evolution of bet-hedging strategies (Beaumont et al 2009; Simons 2011)
We counted a total of 2595 A. femoralis tadpoles in our artificial pools across both samplings, with pools containing a median number of 19 tadpoles per pool
All males with more than three clutches used multiple pools for larval deposition. This demonstrates that A. femoralis males generally distribute their offspring from successive clutches, and to a lesser extent from single clutches, across several pools
Summary
Variable and unpredictable environmental conditions are expected to favour the evolution of bet-hedging strategies (Beaumont et al 2009; Simons 2011). By spreading the risk of mortality across time and/or space, individuals can optimize fitness by reducing the variance in reproductive success in favour of long-term risk reduction (Hopper 1999; Crean and Marshall 2009; Olofsson et al 2009; Simons 2011). Terrestrial oviposition has evolved independently several times, presumably as an adaptation to high aquatic predation pressure on eggs (Magnusson and Hero 1991) and the risk of reduced fertilization success due to stray sperm from rivals in aquatic environments (Roberts and Byrne 2011).
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