Data from: not enough time: short-term female presence after oviposition does not improve egg survival in the Emerald glass frog
Data files
Apr 25, 2024 version files 27.60 KB
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E.pro_embryonic_mortality.csv
2.43 KB
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E.pro_female_removal_field.csv
3.63 KB
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E.pro_female_removal_semicaptivity.csv
1.50 KB
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E.pro_maternal_commitment.csv
982 B
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E.pro_nnd_values.csv
11.79 KB
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README.md
7.26 KB
Abstract
In species exhibiting egg attendance, parents remain with their eggs, protecting them against harsh abiotic conditions, such as dehydration or drowning, and biotic conditions, such as predation, parasitism, and diseases. This form of post-oviposition parental care is widely observed in animals, including amphibians. Long-term egg attendance (spanning several days) is common among glass frogs, and removal experiments have demonstrated the critical role of the parent, whether male or female, in increasing egg survival. However, in a few glass frog species, females stay close to their eggs for less than three hours after oviposition. Previous studies have found that maternal presence reduces dehydration and predation despite the short duration of this attendance behavior. In the glass frog Espadarana prosoblepon, females remain close to their eggs for less than 1.5 hours after oviposition. Given that the embryonic development period in this species spans an average of 25 days, our main question was whether remaining with the clutch for only 0.15% of this time is sufficient to increase egg survival. To address this question, we conducted a female removal experiment in semi-captivity and found no evidence that female presence improves egg hydration after oviposition. In a maternal commitment behavioral assay, most females promptly abandoned their clutches when subjected to a gentle disturbance and did not return to them. Lastly, a female removal experiment under field conditions revealed that clutches with or without mothers experienced similar levels of mortality, primarily caused by invertebrate predators. Through a series of experimental assays, we demonstrate that the short-term female presence in E. prosoblepon does not increase egg survival. Therefore, we argue that the post-oviposition behavior observed in this species cannot be considered parental care behavior. Our findings challenge the assumption that the proximity of parents and their eggs is an unequivocal indicator of parental care.
Goyes Vallejos J, Sandoval Siles J, Calero V, Rodriguez N, Machado G. Not enough time: short-term female presence after oviposition does not improve egg survival in the Emerald glass frog. Submitted to Animal Behavior
Description of the data
Missing values are designated with “NA”, for instance in cases where the data could not be obtained from behavioral observations, or in the case of the removal groups in the female removal experiments, there is no data associated with the female duration with the clutch.
I. [E.pro_embryonic_mortality.csv]
- Description: Datasheet containing data on embryonic mortality (i.e., number of eggs, number of tadpoles that died), for each of the recorded sources of mortality (i.e., predation, desiccation, fungal infection, failure to develop, rain-stripping or drowning, and unknown causes).
- Format: CSV
The columns in the datasheet consist of:
- “Cluch_ID” = unique number assigned for identification for each of the egg clutches
- “Trt” = treatment group corresponding to control or removal groups
- “Substrate” = surface substrate where females of Espadarana prosoblepon deposited their egg cluth
- “Clutch_size” = number of eggs laid per clutch
- “Predation” = number of eggs/embryos that died due to predation
- “dry” = number of eggs/embryos that died due to desiccation
- “Fungal” = number of eggs/embryos that died due to fungal infection
- “Failure to develop” = number of eggs/embryos that stopped their normal development and died
- “Unknown” = number of eggs/embryos that disappeared from the clutch and their fate was uncertain
- “Num_hatched” = number of eggs/embryos that successfully hatched as tadpoles.
- “Num_died” = total number of dead eggs/embryos
- “Prop.hatched” = proportion of surviving tadpoles (Num_hatched/Clutch_size)
- “Prop.mortality” = proportion of embryonic mortality (Prop.hatched - 1)
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II. [E.pro_female_removal_field.csv]
- Description: Datasheet containing data regarding information on behavioral data collection, morphological and behavioral characteristics of the females monitored for the female removal experiment in the field.
- Format: CSV
The columns in the datasheet consist of:
- “Date” = records the specific date of observation in the ‘month dd yyyy’ format
- “Amplexus_time” = time at which the pair in amplexus was found in the ‘hh:mm:ss’ format
- “Clutch_ID” = unique number assigned for identification for each of the egg clutches. In this case, this number corresponds to the same identification number in the datasheet I
- “Trt” = treatment group corresponding to control or removal groups
- “Clutch_size” = number of eggs laid per clutch
- “Female_ID” = female individual identification number (Visible Implant Alpha Tags)
- “Male_ID” = male individual identification number (Visible Implant Alpha Tags)
- “Ovi_date” = date of oviposition (when egg laying occurred) in the ‘month dd yyyy’ format
- “Ovi-time” = time of oviposition (when egg laying occurred) in the ‘hh:mm:ss’ format
- “fem_poq_min” = female post-oviposition quiescence (sensu Goyes Vallejos, J. and Hernndez-Figueroa, A. (2022)), understood as the length of time females remain with the clutch after oviposition occurred (in minutes)
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III. [E.pro_female_removal_semicaptivity.csv]
- Description: Datasheet containing data regarding information on behavioral data collection, morphological and behavioral characteristics of the females monitored during the female removal experiment in semicaptivity in 2022.
- Format: CSV
The columns in the datasheet consist of:
- “Date” = records the specific date of observation in the ‘dd-month-yy’ format
- “Clutch_ID” = unique number assigned for identification for each of the egg clutches.
- “Trt” = treatment group corresponding to control or removal groups
- “Clutch_size” = number of eggs laid per clutch
- “FemaleSVL_mm” = female snout-to-vent length measurement, in millimeters
- “FemaleMASS_g” = female mass, measured in grams
- “Female_ID” = female individual identification number (Visible Implant Alpha Tags)
- “Amplexus_time” = time at which the pair in amplexus was found in the ‘hh:mm:ss’ format
- “Ovi_date” = date of oviposition (when egg laying occurred) in the ‘dd-months-yy’ format
- “Ovi-time” = time of oviposition (when egg laying occurred) in the ‘hh:mm:ss’ format
- “fem_poq_min” = female post-oviposition quiescence (sensu Goyes Vallejos, J. and Hernndez-Figueroa, A. (2022)), understood as the length of time females remain with the clutch after oviposition occurred (in minutes)
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IV. [E.pro_maternal_commitment.csv]
- Description: Datasheet containing data related to the maternal commitment assay.
- Format: CSV
The columns in the datasheet consist of:
- “Date” = records the specific date of observation in the ‘month dd yyyy’ format
- “Amplexus_time” = time at which the pair in amplexus was found in the ‘hh:mm:ss’ format
- “Ovi_date” = date of oviposition (when egg laying occurred) in the ‘month dd yyyy’ format
- “Fem_number’ = number assigned to each of the monitored females
- “Ovi_time” = time of oviposition (when egg laying occurred) in the ‘hh:mm:ss’ format
- “Start_Rec” = time at which video recording started, in the hh:mm:ss format
- “End_Rec” = time at which video recording ended, in the hh:mm:ss format
- “Total_Time” = total recording time, in hh:mm format
- “return” = where “No” means that the female did not return to the clutch after the stimulus
- “Num_15sec” = Number of 15-s stimulus needed for the female to abandon the egg clutch.
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V. [E.pro_nnd_values.csv]
- Description: Datasheet containing data related to estimation of Nearest Neighbor Distances (NDD) between eggs within a clutch.
- Format: CSV
The columns in the datasheet consist of:
- “Clutch_ID” = unique number assigned for identification for each of the egg clutches.
- “Trt” = treatment group corresponding to control or removal at 0 min and removal at 90 min groups
- “Egg_num” = identification number given to individual eggs within a clutch
- “NND” = estimated Nearest Neighbor Distance (NND), measured in mm
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