Multiple Paternity Benefits Female Marbled Salamanders by Increasing Survival of Progeny to Metamorphosis |
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| Authors: | Dean A Croshaw Joseph H K Pechmann Travis C Glenn |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL, USA;2. Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, Aiken, SC, USA;3. Department of Biological Sciences, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, USA;4. Department of Environmental Health Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA |
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| Abstract: | Multiple paternity occurs in most species and animal groups that have been studied. Because mating involves fitness costs to individual females, theory predicts that polyandrous females gain greater fitness benefits than costs, allowing the behavior to be maintained. Genetic, rather than material, benefits often occur in species where males provide females with little more than sperm and seminal fluid. We compared fitness correlates of single‐ and double‐sire clutches from female marbled salamanders (Ambystoma opacum) at the egg, hatchling, and metamorph stages of offspring development. Because clutches were collected from experimental breeding groups, strict paternity exclusion of offspring using microsatellite data allowed us to categorize each clutch as having either one or two fathers. Early offspring viability and size of hatchlings were not different between single‐ and multiple‐paternity clutches. Larvae from the two clutch types were allowed to develop together in field enclosures until metamorphosis. Although there was no difference in size at metamorphosis, survival to metamorphosis was significantly higher in multiple‐paternity clutches (44% vs. 40%) suggesting a benefit for females. The results were consistent with genetic benefits, although maternal effects could not be ruled out. The data did not support predictions of the genetic bet‐hedging and good sperm hypotheses for genetic benefits of polyandry. |
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| Keywords: | multiple paternity field enclosures survival to metamorphosis good sperm genetic bet‐hedging genetic benefits |
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