Influence of environmental factors and body condition on the post-oviposition behavior in the emerald glass frog Espadarana prosoblepon (Centrolenidae)

Abstract

In species with parental care behaviors, parents may adjust the intensity and duration of their care if fluctuation in factors such as environmental variables or body condition affects offspring survival. In the face of environmental changes, many egg-laying species remain with their clutch for extended periods if this behavioral adjustment provides tangible benefits to the offspring. However, the length of time parents stay with the offspring may also differ depending on the individual’s body condition. In the glass frog family (Centrolenidae), several species exhibit long-term egg attendance in which they remain with their clutch for several days after oviposition takes place. For some of them, changes in environmental variables lead to increased parental care efforts. For the species in which parents remain with their offspring for a short period (less than 24 hours), it is less clear if this constitutes parenting behavior, and whether parents adjust their efforts as a function of environmental change or the parent’s body condition remains unexplored. We studied a population of the Emerald Glass Frog, Espadarana prosoblepon, a species that exhibits a short period of quiescence after oviposition (less than three hours). Our study aimed to determine whether females alter the length of their post-oviposition quiescence period in response to changes in environmental variables (i.e., temperature, humidity, rainfall, and mean wind speed) or female body condition. Pairs in amplexus were captured in the field and transported to semi-natural enclosures to record the duration of post-oviposition quiescence using infrared cameras. Females’ post-oviposition quiescence lasted an average of 67.4 ± 26.6 min (range = 22.7–158.3 min). We did not find a significant relationship between the duration of the post-oviposition quiescence and any of the environmental variables tested. Similarly, post-oviposition quiescence duration was not influenced by female body condition. Because the variation observed in the duration of post-oviposition quiescence was not related to changes in extrinsic (environmental) or intrinsic (body condition) factors, we found no evidence that females of E. prosoblepon modify their post-oviposition behavior in response to any of the variables examined in this study. Future research investigating the adaptive significance of the post-oviposition quiescence observed in this species is needed to understand how this behavior is related to parental care efforts.