Paternity and male parental care in Kurixalus eiffingeri

• Main Authors: Wei-Chun Cheng, 鄭偉群
• Other Authors: Yeong-Choy Kam
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/42742587040847199585

碩士 === 東海大學 === 生命科學系 === 96 === Theories of parental care predict that paternity is an important factor affecting the amount of parental care a male provides. A male should reduce parental care when his certainty of paternity in the brood is low. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between certainty of paternity and parental care in a treefrog, Kurixalus eiffingeri. I used microsatellite markers to analyze genetic relationship of 29 egg clutches and males in the nests. Most males appeared in the nest were genetic father of all or part of the egg clutchs. Twenty-five clutches were cared by male frogs, 24 of them had one attending male, and one was attended by two males. Multi-male mating occurred in 21.74% of the matings. Two males in a multi-male mating fertilized eggs and resulted in multiple paternity. Amplexing males did not necessarily sire more eggs than peripheral males but the larger males had more offspring. Male K. eiffingeri attended eggs at a relative low frequency. Attendance and brooding frequency were higher in the early than late embryonic stage. Attendance and brooding time were positively correlated with clutch size but not male weight. Compared to males in single male mating, males participated in multi-male mating provided significantly low levels of attendance and brooding. The presence of other males during egg laying process may act as a cue of reduced paternity which affects a males’ willingness to care their embryos.