Doğu Akdeniz, Türkiye'deki Su Kurbağalarının (Pelophylax ridibundus-complex) Üreme Ekolojisi ve Larval Gelişimi

Abstract

Reproductive biology of Marsh frogs (Pelophylax ridibundus s.l.) was investigated in the Eastern Mediterranean Region of Türkiye in terms of reproductive phenology, fecundity, clutch size, reproductive effort, and mate choice. Frogs are active for approximately ten months throughout the year and hibernate between November and January. Breeding occurs from mid-January until early June and metamorphosis took 45-65 days, with juveniles observed from the end of March. The tadpole reaches its largest size at stage 38, with a mean total length of 60.61 mm and juveniles have an average snout-vent length of 20 mm at the end of metamorphosis. Secondary sexual characters can be observed on individuals reaching 45 mm snout-vent length and we could not detect any amplexed pairs below this length. The clutch size of spawned egg masses ranged between 144 – 645 and the mean egg size was calculated as 1.73 mm. The mean fecundity was 3853 (ranging between 940 and 6000) eggs and the reproductive effort was 0.094 in females. Females were approximately 16% larger than males and the snout–vent length of males and females of amplexed pairs is significantly different but not correlated. These findings signify random mating instead of size-assortative mating. However, the preference of 6.8% larger females than single ones to mate indicates a size-dependent mating for Western Mediterranean population.