Open AccessGrowth and survivorship in juvenile woodlice: is birth mass important?
Author(s) -
Dangerfield J. Mark
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
ecography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.973
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1600-0587
pISSN - 0906-7590
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0587.1997.tb00355.x
Subject(s) - offspring , survivorship curve , biology , juvenile , ecology , parental investment , demography , zoology , pregnancy , genetics , cancer , sociology
Growth and survivorship of individually reared offspring of the woodlice (Isopoda Oniscidae) Porcellionides pruinosus (Brandt) and Aphiloscia vilis (Budde‐Lund) were measured under laboratory conditions These measures of offspring fitness were compared to birth mass, which is a realistic measure of parental investment in offspring for these species, to test a key assumption of life history theory that an increase in resource allocation to offspring will increase offspring fitness In both species birth mass had no significant effect on survivorship to 60 days and in P pruinosus birth mass did not correlate with mass at 15, 30 or 45 days after birth In A vilis larger young at birth had a slight growth advantage to 15 days but not thereafter There appears to be little effect of birth mass on offspring fitness despite a considerable range in birth mass within broods In these species high variance in juvenile growth may spread subsequent reproductive effort and avoid risks of total reproductive failure