Reproductive Traits And Larvae Antipredation Behavior Of Two Sympatric Speciess (Microhyla Ornata And Fejeyarya Limnocharis)

In this dissertation, I used two sympatric species(Microhyla ornata and Fejeyarya limnocharis) as model animals to explore adaptive strategies of two sympatric species in the same environment through mainly studied the characteristics of courtship calls during breeding season, sexual dimorphism, reproductive output, antipredator behavior of tadpoles. The main results and conclusions are summarized as following:(1)I recorded and analyzed the courtship calls and the acoustic parameters of two sympatric species (M. ornata and F. limnocharis) using an IC recorder (SX950) and the sound software Praat during breeding season. I observed that the male M. ornata produced calls characterized by a single structure and multiple pulses (7-18), but single structure and single note was produced by the male F. limnocharis. The eight acoustic parameters (Call duration, Call interval duration, The first formant, The first bandwidth, The second bandwidth, The third formant, Call intensity, Dominant frequency) were significantly different among two sympatric species, showed species-specific. Further analysis suggested that the third formant was negatively correlated with snout- urostyle length and body mass in M. ornata, while call duration was positively correlated with snout-urostyle length and body mass in F. limnocharis. I assumed that the strategy of M. ornata is adjusted by reducing energy on the third formant, while the male F. limnocharis extended the call duration to reflect the quality of their own for female attentions. This research should provide reference data for acoustic communication of Anuran.(2) To research sexual dimorphism and female reproductive output, showed that the snout-urostyle length and abdomen length of females were significantly larger than those of males, but the head length of males was significantly larger than females, and there were no significantly different in other morphological traits of M. ornata. In F. limnocharis, the snout-urostyle length of females was significantly larger males, while all other morphological traits were not significantly different. I found the snout-urostyle length of males was positively corrrlated with the snout-urostyle length of females in two species, respectively. I assumed that they both belong to size-assortative mating pattern. In reproductive traits, clutch size was positively correlated with head length in M. ornata, while clutch size and clutch mass were positively correlated with snout-urostyle length, head length and abdomen length in F. limnocharis, showed that the female of F. limnocharis could increase reproductive outputs by increasing body sizes, but M. ornata did not. The qualities (Hatching rate, Metamorphosis rate, Metamorphosis time, Body length of froglet, Body mass of froglet) of offspring were not correlated with male size in M. ornata, assumed that perfected fertilization through behavioral modification.(3) I used tadpoles of two sympatric species (M. ornata and F. limnocharis) as prey, while mosquitofish and dragonfly larva as predators to study the effects of predator type (Invasive predator or Native predator), predator diet (Conspecifics or Heterospecifics) and association types (Single population or Mixed populations) on activity levels, growth (Body length, Body mass and Body condition (body mass/ body length)) and metamorphosis (Metamorphosis rate, Metamorphosis time and Variance of metamorphosis time) of tadpoles. I studied the antipredator mechanism of tadpoles of two sympatric species. The results showed:(1) escape level for invasive predator was higher than that for native predator in M. ornata and F. limnocharis. (2) the predator avoidance mechanism of M. ornate was not specific to predator type and predator diet, but the predator avoidance mechanism of F. limnocharis was more intense when predator fed on conspecifics. (3) tadpoles of two sympatric species had no phenotypic response differences on predator diet. (4) aggregations of tadpoles were useful to reduce predation risk and stabilize the number of populations.