Sex ratio and mating behaviour in the Calanoid Copepod Pseudodiaptomus annandalei - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Zoological Studies Année : 2012

Sex ratio and mating behaviour in the Calanoid Copepod Pseudodiaptomus annandalei

Résumé

Information on mating is one of the primary requirements for successful population maintenance of copepods. Several studies on copepod mating were conducted, but none has ever investigated the effect of the sex ratio. Using optical systems, this study examined the plasticity of encounters, the rejection rate, and the mate guarding duration as a function of the sex ratio in the little known tropical species Pseudodiaptomus annandalei, that lives in aquaculture ponds in southern Taiwan. Our study results exhibited strong variability that may have obscured the effect of the sex ratio. Nevertheless some patterns did emerge. The number of encounters, very low with a highly male-biased sex ratio, increased as the sex ratio became more balanced. After reaching a maximum with an even sex ratio, it decreased again as the sex ratio became more female-biased. The male rejection rate exhibited a similar trend, higher for an even sex ratio and decreasing with a more-unbalanced sex ratio, except for a strongly female-biased sex ratio. The rejection rate was associated with the number of encounters in four of the 5 tested conditions. Females exhibited stronger choosiness when encounters were higher and relaxation when encounters were low. However, under female-biased sex ratio conditions, despite a lower encounter rate, females were very selective. This result is in agreement with theoretical models that predict a possible slackening of mate selection when encounters are mate limited. Although the sex ratio is supposed to induce a modification in mate guarding, no differences were found here. This pioneer study should lead to interesting debates and new insights on the effects of the sex ratio on copepod behavior

Domaines

Océanographie
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Dates et versions

hal-00815847 , version 1 (19-04-2013)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-00815847 , version 1

Citer

Gaël Dur, Sami Souissi, François G Schmitt, Shin-Hong Cheng, Jiang-Shiou Hwang. Sex ratio and mating behaviour in the Calanoid Copepod Pseudodiaptomus annandalei. Zoological Studies, 2012, 51, pp.589-597. ⟨hal-00815847⟩
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