Tactical reproductive parasitism via larval cannibalism in Peruvian poison frogs
Author
Brown, Jason L.; Morales, Victor; Summers, Kyle
Abstract
We report an unusual example of reproductive parasitism in amphibians. Dendrobates variabi- lis, an Amazonian poison frog, oviposits at the surface of the water in small pools in plants and deposits tadpoles within the pools. Tadpoles are highly cannibalistic and consume young tadpoles if they are accessible. Deposition of embryos and tadpoles in the same pool is common. Genetic analyses indicate that tadpoles are fre- quently unrelated to embryos in the same pool. A pool choice experiment in the field demon- strated that males carrying tadpoles prefer to place them in pools with embryos, facilitating reproductive parasitism via cannibalism. Originally published Biology Letters, Vol. 5, No. 2, Apr 2009
Date
2009-04-23
Citation:
APA:
Brown, Jason L., & Morales, Victor, & Summers, Kyle. (April 2009).
Tactical reproductive parasitism via larval cannibalism in Peruvian poison frogs.
Biology Letters,
5(2),
148-
151. Retrieved from
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3214
MLA:
Brown, Jason L., and Morales, Victor, and Summers, Kyle.
"Tactical reproductive parasitism via larval cannibalism in Peruvian poison frogs". Biology Letters.
5:2. (148-151),
April 2009.
September 21, 2023.
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3214.
Chicago:
Brown, Jason L. and Morales, Victor and Summers, Kyle,
"Tactical reproductive parasitism via larval cannibalism in Peruvian poison frogs," Biology Letters 5, no.
2 (April 2009),
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3214 (accessed
September 21, 2023).
AMA:
Brown, Jason L., Morales, Victor, Summers, Kyle.
Tactical reproductive parasitism via larval cannibalism in Peruvian poison frogs. Biology Letters.
April 2009;
5(2):
148-151.
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3214. Accessed
September 21, 2023.
Collections
Publisher
East Carolina University