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1.
Maternal effects can function as a mechanism of transgenerational plasticity by which the environment experienced by parents is translated into the offspring phenotype and fitness. In birds, parents may affect the competitive ability of their offspring, and hence their fitness, by modifying their hatching pattern and/or egg size. However, little is known about how mothers can modify offspring phenotypes and their fitness in response to a sudden change in environmental conditions during egg-laying. Here, we studied the effect of supplemental food during egg-laying on hatching asynchrony and egg size in the Eurasian roller (Coracias garrulus), a species with marked hatching asynchrony. We also explored the effects of maternal investment on offspring fitness. Food supplementation did not affect hatching asynchrony. However, females in food-supplemented nests laid eggs that increased in size with laying order except for an ultimate small egg. Meanwhile, size of eggs laid by females in control nests did not change with laying order. Supplemental food positively affected hatchability of the egg laid just before the last one and negatively affected hatchability of the last laid egg, which seemed to be a side effect of egg size. Consequently, food-supplemented nests produced fewer fledglings and had higher probabilities of suffering brood reduction than control nests. We conclude that egg size in rollers is a plastic trait, sensitive to short-term changes in food conditions. Furthermore, our results show that maternal investment in egg size may potentially affect offspring fitness. 相似文献
2.
The theory of sex allocation suggests that if the reproductive value and the cost of producing/rearing offspring differ between
male and female offspring, parents should invest differently in sexes depending on environmental conditions. Female parents
could allocate more resources to eggs of one sex to compensate potential sex-dependent constraints later during the nestling
period. In this study, we tested the influence of environmental conditions on sexual dimorphism in eggs of Eurasian kestrels
(Falco tinnunculus) by experimentally manipulating food availability before laying. We found that an increase in food abundance before laying
did not increase egg mass but changed sex-dependent resource distribution in eggs. In food-supplemented pairs, but not in
control pairs, egg mass and hatchling mass were similar between males and females. In addition, we found, in the food-supplemented
group, that the latest hatched females showed shorter hatching times than in the control group. In control pairs, female eggs,
hatchlings and nestlings were heavier than males. In addition, male fledglings in the food-supplemented group gained less
mass than those in the control group. As that food abundance was only increased until the onset of laying, female kestrels
were expected to invest in eggs taking food abundance before egg formation as a predictor of future conditions during brood
rearing. Our study shows that environmental conditions before laying promote a subtle adjustment of the resources invested
in both sexes of offspring rather than in other breeding parameters. This adjustment resulted in a shortening of hatching
time of the last hatched females that possibly gives them advantages in their competitive capacity with respect to male nest-mates. 相似文献
3.
Louis Hautier Jean-Claude Grégoire Jérôme de Schauwers Gilles San Martin Pierre Callier Jean-Pierre Jansen Jean-Christophe de Biseau 《Chemoecology》2008,18(3):191-196
Summary. Under laboratory conditions, the multicolored Asian lady beetle, Harmonia axyridis is well known as an intraguild predator of other ladybirds. However the real impact of this exotic species on native species
was poorly investigated in the field. Because many ladybird species produce alkaloids as defensive compounds, we propose here
a new method of intraguild predation monitoring in coccinellids based on alkaloid quantification by GC-MS. In laboratory experiments,
adaline was unambiguously detected in fourth instar larvae of H. axyridis having ingested one egg or one first instar larva of Adalia bipunctata. Although prey alkaloids in the predator decreased with time, traces were still detected in pupae, exuviae and imagines of
H. axyridis having ingested one prey when they were fourth instar larvae. Analysis of H. axyridis larvae collected in two potato fields shows for the first time in Europe the presence of exogenous alkaloids in 9 out of
28 individuals tested. This new method of intraguild predation detection could be used more widely to follow the interactions
between predators and potential chemically defended insect preys. 相似文献
4.
In some bird species, mothers can advantage the offspring of one sex either by elevating them in the laying order to promote earlier hatching or by allocating greater resources to eggs of the preferred sex. In size dimorphic species, the predictions as to which sex should benefit most from such pre-laying adjustments are ambiguous. The smaller sex would benefit from an initial size advantage to help compensate for the faster growth rate of the larger sex. However, an early advantage to offspring of the larger sex might have a greater effect on their lifetime reproductive success than an equivalent advantage to offspring of the smaller sex. We investigated these hypotheses in the polygynous brown songlark, Cinclorhamphus cruralis, which is one of the most sexually size dimorphic birds known. We conducted within-clutch comparisons and found that females hatched from larger eggs and were initially heavier (but not structurally larger) than their brothers. This may afford females an early competitive advantage, as egg volume remained correlated with chick mass until at least 5 days of age. Similarly, we found that hatch order was still positively associated with nestling mass and size when the brood was 10 days of age, but there was no clear relationship between offspring sex and hatching order. During this study, food was plentiful and there were few obvious cases of nestling starvation. When food is limited, we suggest that the greater nutrient reserves of female hatchlings could not only help compensate for their slower growth, but could also give them a survival advantage over their brothers early in the nestling period. Consequently, egg size dimorphism may be an adaptation that facilitates an early shift in brood sex-ratio towards cheaper daughters in conditions of low food availability. 相似文献
5.
Laboratory studies on the reproductive cycle of the planktonic copepod Temora stylifera, collected from the Gulf of Naples between October 1987 and March 1988, showed that females oscillated between a light and dark gonadal condition. Histological preparations indicated that the dark condition corresponded to a ripe stage of oogenesis as compared to the light or unripe maturation state of primary oocytes. The number of eggs released within 24 h was strongly dependent on the reproductive status of the female at the time of incubation. Light unfed females rarely reverted to a dark or ripe condition and egg deposition in such cases was almost always zero. Dark females produced eggs within 24 h under all experimental food conditions, reverting from dark to light soon after egg deposition. Successively, the length of the interclutch period was strongly dependent on the type of food present. A high percentage of infertile eggs was almost always present. We suggest that short-term studies, not taking into consideration the condition of gonads at the time of incubation, will underestimate potential egg production rates. Females maintained for longer than three or four days produced mainly infertile eggs. After remating, females reinitiated the production of fertile eggs but egg viabilities never reached 100% hatching success, indicating poor efficiency in the fertilization of mature oocytes. We hypothesize a possible cause and effect relationship between egg viabilities and seasonal fluctuations in population densities.Died tragically at sea during a cruise 相似文献
6.
Nicola Saino Maria Romano Diego Rubolini Manuela Caprioli Roberto Ambrosini Mauro Fasola 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2010,64(11):1813-1821
Parental decisions can determine offspring experience of environmental conditions. Such ‘maternal’ effects act both before and after hatching via, e.g., egg quality or the social milieu predisposed by parents. Resource availability may constrain the expression of adaptive maternal effects, and the specific pattern of allocation of these effects among offspring depending on their sex or birth order can result in different fitness payoffs to parents. Declining egg mass with laying order observed in several bird species may constitute an adaptive strategy of parental favouritism towards early hatching offspring with larger reproductive value but may also result from nutritional constraints on laying effort. A previous study has shown that the small size of the third, last laid (c-)egg in yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) clutches depends on food availability and that food-supplemented mothers increase the size of their female but not male c-eggs. Here, we show that increased mass of c-eggs laid by females supplemented with food after clutch initiation depends on increased albumen mass, which, in turn, enhances the size of daughters at hatching. Because asynchronous hatching results in a competitive disadvantage of c-chicks, present results suggest that mothers relieved from nutritional constraints enhance the size of daughters to compensate for their larger susceptibility to hatching last. The study also confirms the role of egg albumen content in determining hatchling size, previously experimentally detected only in one species in the wild. The effect of increased egg mass on offspring size persisted at least until day 8 after hatching, when, however, it did not vary with sex, suggesting intense negative selection on small female c-chicks in control broods. Hence, maternal effects mediated by egg albumen content had persistent effects on offspring size. 相似文献
7.
Effects of maternal food environment and season were examined during spring and autumn on females, eggs and nauplii of Calanus finmarchicus, in different natural prey suspensions or cultures of Rhodomonas baltica. Females sampled in spring were in general larger, had higher protein content, and showed higher egg production and hatching rates, than in autumn. The cumulative egg production was almost double in spring compared to autumn (females fed R. baltica). Females had higher content of free amino acids (FAA) and free essential amino acids (EAA) in autumn than in the spring. Also, the FAA contents in eggs and nauplii were higher in autumn than in spring. In contrast, the composition of EAA in eggs was constant between seasons, indicating maternal regulation. The highest cumulative egg production was correlated with a high similarity in the free pool of EAA in the food suspension and the female copepod. Thus, the data support the hypothesis that similarity in the free pool of EAA of diet and female promotes high fecundity and egg hatching success in C. finmarchicus. 相似文献
8.
A. Kellermann 《Marine Biology》1990,106(2):159-167
The feeding dynamics of larvae of the Antarctic fishNototheniops larseni were analyzed from data collected over three years in Bransfield Strait and adjacent waters (Antarctica). Seasonal feeding was examined from 1977/1978 (November–March). The diel feeding cycle was investigated during a 96 h station established in February 1976, while food selection was analyzed using larvae and zooplankton samples collected in February 1982. Hatching occurs in early spring, and larvae fed on eggs of calanoid copepods and on cyclopoid copepods. Copepod eggs were the principal food near the pack ice, and cyclopoids in open waters. Cyclopoids were the staple food in summer. Eggs of the Antarctic krillEuphausia superba were ingested selectively and formed major portions of the larval summer diet in neritic (Joinville Island) and oceanic (Elephant Island) spawning areas ofE. superba. In the fall, copepods predominated in the diets. Most abundant and most frequently ingested prey in summer and fall wereOncaea spp. Feeding commenced at dawn and continued at least until dusk. Krill eggs were taken chiefly during morning hours and egg incidence declined during the day, suggesting that eggs were ingested soon after spawning. Prey size at the onset of feeding was estimated as 0.130 to 0.330 mm. Size-selective feeding was evident in small larvae, while in larger larvae median prey length remained constant. High feeding incidence among yolk-sac larvae in spring, high overall feeding incidence in summer, and size-selective foraging of small larvae suggested favorable feeding conditions in the 1977/1978 season. Yolk-absorption times in Antarctic fish larvae vary on a scale of weeks and may be further retarded due to early feeding. Hence, year-to-year variability of yolk incidence inN. larseni indicated variable biotic environments of early feeding larvae rather than temporal shifts of hatching periods. As hatching periods are constant between years in contrast to the variable retreat of the pack ice and subsequent onset of the production cycle in space and time, maternal yolk reserves are probably utilized to compensate for such variations. 相似文献
9.
Two distinct modes of development in the common polychaete Scoloplos armiger (O. F. Müller, 1776) occur in the North Sea region: holobenthic development in egg cocoons and pelagic larvae hatching from suspended eggs. In the northern Wadden Sea near the island of Sylt, we observed that egg cocoons are produced intertidally while pelagic larvae originate from the adjacent subtidal zone. A previous genetic comparison between these subtidal and intertidal populations revealed distinct gene pools, suggesting that reproductive differences are not phenotypic but heritable. In this study, crossbreeding experiments show that intertidal and subtidal populations are reproductively isolated. Couples with males and females from different habitats had no offspring. Production of egg cocoons is determined by female origin from the intertidal zone. Pelagic larvae occurred only in couples with subtidal females and subtidal males. Intertidal males have spermatozoa with heads twice as long as those from subtidal males and a significantly shorter flagellum. We suspect that deviating sperm morphology may cause the reproductive breakdown at the fertilization stage. Juveniles hatching from cocoons have shorter anal cirri compared to juveniles that metamorphosed from pelagic larvae. We conclude there to be two sympatric sibling species in S. armiger: 'type I' in intertidal areas, which have egg cocoons, no pelagic larvae, elongated sperm heads, shortened sperm flagella and anal cirri; and a subtidal 'type S', lacking egg cocoons but with pelagic larvae, short sperm heads, long sperm flagella and anal cirri.Communicated by O. Kinne, Oldendorf/Luhe 相似文献
10.
Role of surface chemical signals in egg cannibalism and intraguild predation in ladybirds (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) 总被引:5,自引:0,他引:5
Summary. The eggs of some ladybirds are known to be toxic to intraguild ladybird predators. However, this defence is of little value
if the eggs are killed before their toxicity becomes apparent. The results presented in this paper indicate that chemicals
on the surface of the eggs of two species of ladybirds signal the relative risk of cannibalism and intraguild predation. In
Adalia bipunctata and Coccinella septempunctata, 87% of the chemicals are alkanes. Each species of ladybird is less reluctant to eat their own eggs than those of the other
species. This asymmetry is to be expected because there is a greater risk to ladybirds from intraguild predation than cannibalism.
Similar alkanes to those on the surface of the eggs of A. bipunctata are present in tracks left by larvae and on the elytra of the adults of this species. Those in the larval tracks deter females
from ovipositing in patches of prey already being attacked by their larvae and those on the elytra are used in mate recognition.
That different context dependent messages could be signalled by similar chemicals is an example of semiochemical parsimony.
Received 25 February 2000; accepted 22 May 2000 相似文献
11.
Sclerocrangon boreas is uncommon among marine coastal carideans in having a non-dispersing, abbreviated (2-stage) larval phase. We investigated
the implications of this strategy in terms of fecundity, offspring provisioning and brood care in S. boreas from the St. Lawrence Gulf and Estuary in 2009–2010. Fecundity scaled positively to female body size but was low due to the
production of large, lipid-rich eggs. Offspring size at all stages of development was positively related to female size. Larval
traits and lipid dynamics indicate obligatory lecithotrophic development from hatching to juvenile. The larva becomes a juvenile
on the mother and remains associated with her for sometime after. The co-occurrence of early egg stages among many juveniles
in some clutches raises the possibility that maternal care of juveniles includes the provisioning of trophic eggs or eggs
reclaimed from other females. 相似文献
12.
Peter Schausberger 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2005,58(1):53-59
A crucial question with respect to imprinting is how animals ensure that kin imprint on kin but not on non-kin. Imprinting takes place in a sensitive ontogenetic phase, usually in an early period of life or when offspring are produced, at which time the recipient imprints on the first referents met. In the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis, imprinting among immature individuals happens in the larval stage immediately after hatching. I tested the hypothesis that adult P. persimilis females manipulate offspring imprinting by influencing the likelihood of encounters among recipients and referents via egg placement and egg aggregation. I conducted two experiments, one of which addressed imprinting and cannibalism, and the other addressed egg placement and egg aggregation. The imprinting experiment suggests that larvae imprint on any conspecific individual met in a sensitive ontogenetic phase and later on treat this individual as kin, irrespective of relatedness. After molting to protonymphs, imprinted individuals preferentially cannibalized unfamiliar to familiar larvae. Irrespective of familiarity, kin were cannibalized earlier than non-kin, suggesting the involvement of self-referent phenotype matching. The egg-placement experiment provides evidence that females adjust the aggregation level of their own eggs according to the degree of relatedness to present eggs from a previously ovipositing female. Both experiments in concert suggest that egg placement is a maternal strategy influencing imprinting among immature individuals. Apart from avoiding kin cannibalism, egg placement and imprinting by larvae may have relevance to other behaviors influenced by kin recognition, such as mate choice, prey-patch choice and dispersal.Communicated by L. Simmons 相似文献
13.
Female seaweed flies, Coelopa frigida, have the potential to benefit from mating more than once. Single matings result in low fertility so females may benefit directly from multiple copulations by sperm replenishment. A chromosomal inversion associated with larval fitness, with heterokaryotypic larvae having higher viability than homokaryotypes, means that polyandrous homokaryotypic females have a higher probability of producing genetically fit offspring than monandrous homokaryotypic females. We allowed females to mate only once, repeatedly four times to the same male, or polyandrously four times to four different males. Multiply mated and polyandrous females laid more eggs and produced more offspring than singly mated and monandrous females, respectively. Polyandrous females laid more eggs, had higher egg-to-adult survival rates and produced more offspring than repeatedly mated females. Fertility rates did not differ between treatments. The observed fitness patterns therefore resulted from increased oviposition through multiple mating per se, and a further increase in oviposition coupled with higher egg-to-adult offspring survival benefits to polyandry. Daily monitoring of individual females over their entire life spans showed that multiple copulations induced early oviposition, with polyandrous females ovipositing earlier than repeatedly mated females. Singly mated and polyandrous females incurred a longevity cost independent of egg production, whereas repeatedly mated females did not. This suggests that repeatedly mating with the same male may counteract a general cost of mating. Longevity, however, was not correlated with overall female fitness. Our data are discussed in the overall context of the seaweed fly mating system.Communicated by G. Wilkinson 相似文献
14.
José M. Aparicio 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1997,41(2):129-137
Lesser kestrels (Falco naumanni) lay clutches which appear excessive as only 3% of them yield as many young as eggs laid. Four hypotheses may explain the
adaptive value of producing surplus eggs: (1) the bet-hedging hypothesis assumes that the environment varies unpredictably
and surplus eggs serve to track uncertain resources; (2) the ice-box hypothesis suggests that surplus offspring serve as a
reserve food during a period of shortage; (3) the progeny choice hypothesis says that parents produce surplus offspring in
order to choose these with higher fitness; and (4) the insurance-egg hypothesis proposes that extra eggs are an insurance
against the failure of any egg. To test the significance of this strategy in the lesser kestrel, an experiment manipu-lating
brood size at hatching was carried out over 2 years, with good and bad feeding conditions. The experiment consisted of adding
a chick to experimental broods where one egg failed to hatch or removing a randomly selected chick from experimental broods
where all eggs had hatched. Independently of annual food availability, pairs with brood sizes reduced by one chick fledged
more nestlings than pairs with brood size equalling their clutch sizes. Body condition of young was also better in the former
group, but only in 1993 (a high-food year). Independently of year, mean local survival of parents with complete broods at
hatching was lower than for parents raising reduced broods. These results supported only the insurance-egg hypothesis which
says that surplus eggs may be an insurance against the failure of any egg, but parents may suffer reproductive costs when
all eggs hatch.
Received: 17 January 1997 / Accepted after revision: 27 April 1997 相似文献
15.
Summary. Young larvae of Adalia bipunctata search an area more intensively when exposed to the odour from other larvae feeding on aphids than when exposed only to the
odour of aphids. In an olfactometer young larvae were significantly attracted either to the odour of crushed aphids or larvae
feeding on aphids, but not to that of aphids, larvae, larvae plus aphids or larvae feeding on an artificial diet. That is,
the change in searching behaviour appears in response to a volatile released by aphids when attacked. The odour released by
crushed aphids is made up entirely of aphid alarm pheromone, β-farnesene. It is likely that the adaptive significance of this
response is that it increases the ability of larvae to locate larvae that have already caught prey. By sharing the aphid kill
of another larva it is likely that a first instar ladybird larva greatly increases its probability of surviving to the next
instar. It is suggested that this social feeding is facilitated by egg clustering, which also may additionally account for
why aphidophagous ladybirds lay their eggs in clusters.
Received 28 February 2000; accepted 24 March 2000 相似文献
16.
Miran Kim Robert W. Furness Ruedi G. Nager 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2010,64(7):1087-1097
Hatching asynchrony is widespread amongst animals, but no consensus has yet emerged as to why asynchronous hatching has evolved.
It is generally thought to have adaptive benefits during the raising of dependent young. However, here, we considered an alternative
view of hatching asynchrony in birds as a consequence of factors acting at the onset of incubation. We recorded parental nest
attendance behaviour during laying using continuous records of nest temperature in herring gulls, Larus argentatus. We tested whether nest attendance during laying was related to individual factors (clutch size and diet) and whether it
had consequences on fitness outcomes (hatching spread, incubation period, hatching success and chick survival). Low nest attendance
was associated with small clutch size, and independent of clutch size, pairs on a more marine diet had lower nest attendance
than pairs on a lower trophic level terrestrial diet, possibly due to higher foraging effort for marine food. Broods hatched
more asynchronous where pairs had a lower nest attendance during laying or took longer to complete a clutch and where the
last egg took longer to hatch. Low nest attendance was also related to shorter incubation periods, possibly representing a
strategy of birds in poor condition to reduce the demand of incubation by reducing the length of incubation. We found that
low nest attendance during laying and increasing hatching asynchrony had detrimental effects on hatching success for small
eggs laid early in the laying sequence. Increasing hatching asynchrony also had a detrimental effect on the survival of the
youngest sibling. In our study population, hatching asynchrony was influenced by a more complex set of factors than simply
onset of incubation and appears to be constrained by circumstances at the onset of incubation rather than to be an adaptive
strategy. Thus, factors acting both during offspring rearing and at the onset of incubation need to be considered for a better
understanding of hatching asynchrony. 相似文献
17.
Laboratory experiments on ovigerous females of northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) were used to assess the effects of temperature and food ration on female condition during incubation and examine how combined effects of temperature and female condition influenced egg survival, embryonic development, and larval characteristics. Ovigerous females were maintained at 2°C, 5°C, and 8°C and fed on a low (three times/week; 2–2.7% W/W) or high ration (five times/week at satiation). The increase in temperature accelerated the developmental time of the eggs but their survival at 8°C was reduced. Conversion efficiency of yolk reserves in developing embryos was significantly reduced at elevated temperatures and larvae hatching at 2°C and 5°C were significantly larger and heavier than those hatching at 8°C. The experimental design did not result in any effect of food ration on the energetic condition of females or on egg characteristics and their biochemical composition. However, lower energy reserves were observed for females held at 8°C. 相似文献
18.
Natural enemies exert selection pressure on their prey. Predators and parasitoids drive their prey into the evolution of novel
traits to cope with this stress. When eggs and juveniles are the target of enemies, defense strategies may rely on adults.
However, it is not easy to predict whether adults should actively protect unrelated offspring. Females of the golden egg bug
(Phyllomorpha laciniata) mainly oviposit on conspecifics of either sex. Females can also lay eggs on their food plant. Eggs placed on plants suffer
from a higher mortality caused by natural enemies than eggs carried by bugs. Females never carry their own eggs and males
are seldom related to the eggs they carry. We experimentally explored if conspecifics protect the eggs by studying the behavioral
interaction between P. laciniata individuals and the specialist egg parasitoid Gryon bolivari. All bugs exhibited active responses against parasitoids regardless of the sex of the bug, the egg load, and their mating
status. Most of the responses prevented parasitoids from reaching the eggs, and thus they reduced the risk of egg parasitization.
Although responses of bugs were effective to overcome parasitoid attacks, we suggest that egg protection against parasitoids
has evolved as a co-opted trait from a general defense of adult bugs against enemies. In this system, egg defense is not an
individual's strategy to protect the offspring, but rather a consequence of the eggs being attached to one's body. It may
also explain the low parasitization carried eggs suffer in the wild. The results further highlight the idea of conspecifics
as an enemy-free space in P. laciniata. 相似文献
19.
Summary. Recent studies indicate that amphibian eggs are capable of hatching plasticity in response to chemical cues released by predators
feeding on conspecific eggs or larvae. However, information is scarce on the relative importance of predator and conspecific
cues in such a process. In particular, no attempt has been made to compare the effects of embryonic exposures to chemical
cues indicative of a predation risk for eggs and larvae, although both life stages can co-occur in natural habitats. In this
context, common frog embryos (Rana temporaria) were raised until hatching in the presence of crushed conspecific extracts from eggs and tadpoles to assess their respective
influences on some hatching and larval traits. While a significant delay in hatching time was observed in embryos exposed
to chemical cues from tadpole extract, this life-history shift appeared unaffected by embryonic exposure to egg extract. Hatchlings
derived from eggs incubated in the presence of both conspecific extracts showed a significantly greater weight than unexposed
controls. However, such an effect was no longer apparent 15, 30 and 50 days after hatching, suggesting that embryonic exposure
to chemical cues from damaged conspecific eggs and tadpoles has no influence on larval growth. Lastly, morphological measurements
performed on hatchlings and older tadpoles (15, 30 and 50 days old) revealed no significant effect of embryonic treatments
on the shape of body and tail. 相似文献
20.
A comparative study of the inhibitory effect of diatoms on the reproductive biology of the copepod Temora stylifera 总被引:4,自引:0,他引:4
Egg production and viability in the copepod Temora stylifera (collected in the Bay of Naples, Italy in 1992) were strongly dependent on food type. A flagellate (Isochrysis galbana) diet induced the production of good quality eggs that developed to hatching. By contrast, two diatoms (Chaetoceros curvisetum, Phaeodactylum tricornutum) resulted in poor egg quality, with hatching success as low as 20% of total egg production. With the third diatom tested, Skeletonema costatum, females produced eggs for only 3 to 4 d, after which time they either became sterile or died. These results are discussed in relation to previous findings regarding the impact of the dinoflagellate Prorocentrum minimum and the diatom Thalassiosira rotula on the hatching success of T. stylifera eggs. Low egg viability was possibly not due to an absence of remating or a deficiency of some specific essential nutrient required for egg development but to the presence of inhibitory compounds blocking cell division during early copepod embryogenesis. This questions the traditional view that diatoms are an important food item regulating copepod secondary production. 相似文献