Factors affecting submerged oviposition in a water strider: level of dissolved oxygen and male presence
Section snippets
Materials
Adult A. paludum insularis were collected from Todoroki pond in Hisayama, Japan (33° 36′ 29″N, 130° 29′ 34E″) from 14 July to 26 September 2005. After measuring body size and recording sex and wing morph (short- or long-winged), we gave all the individuals a unique paint mark for subsequent identification (Opaque Color, Teranishi Chemical Industry, Osaka, Japan). Before and after the experiment, five to eight females and the same number of males were maintained in an aquarium (30 × 45 cm and 15 cm
Results
We used 512 male–female pairs of A. paludum for the experiment: 256 pairs each in high- and low-DO water. Of these, 59 pairs engaged in submerged oviposition in the high-DO water and 68 pairs in the low-DO water (Table 1). These 127 pairs were used in the subsequent analysis. During submerged oviposition by the tandem-pair method, nine males in the high-DO water and 15 males in the low-DO water floated to the surface independently, while their female partners continued to oviposit underwater.
Effects of Water DO Concentration
Our results on the mean duration of submersion suggest that oviposition bouts were shorter in the low-DO water, indicating that the duration of spontaneous submerged oviposition by A. paludum was affected by DO concentration. This result is consistent with that of Tsubaki et al. (2006) forced damselflies C. cornelia, into water and measured their potential for submergence. The present study is the first to demonstrate that the duration of spontaneous (not forced) submerged oviposition in
Acknowledgments
We express our gratitude to all our colleagues at our laboratory, for their help and encouragement. In particular, we thank Takashi Kuriwada and Gen Sakurai for their assistance and advice. We also thank Chris Wood for editing the manuscript. We also thank Jaco M. Greeff, Angela K. Turner and three anonymous referees for their helpful comments.
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Oviposition depth in response to egg parasitism in the water strider: high-risk experience promotes deeper oviposition
2009, Animal BehaviourCitation Excerpt :We recorded the manner of oviposition (surface or submerged oviposition) from the video records. We also recorded the submerging method (single female or tandem pair) and the duration submerged (±1 s; methods were identical to Hirayama & Kasuya 2008). After the first trial, the water striders were moved to aquaria (30 × 45 cm and 15 cm, high, water filled 5 cm deep) without an oviposition substrate.