DOI: 10.5061/dryad.612jm648q
title: Data from: not enough time: short-term female presence after oviposition does not improve egg survival in the Emerald glass frog

description: In species exhibiting egg attendance, parents remain with their eggs,
 protecting them against harsh abiotic conditions, such as dehydration or
 drowning, and biotic conditions, such as predation, parasitism, and
 diseases. This form of post-oviposition parental care is widely observed
 in animals, including amphibians. Long-term egg attendance (spanning
 several days) is common among glass frogs, and removal experiments have
 demonstrated the critical role of the parent, whether male or female, in
 increasing egg survival. However, in a few glass frog species, females
 stay close to their eggs for less than three hours after oviposition.
 Previous studies have found that maternal presence reduces dehydration and
 predation despite the short duration of this attendance behavior. In the
 glass frog Espadarana prosoblepon, females remain close to their eggs for
 less than 1.5 hours after oviposition. Given that the embryonic
 development period in this species spans an average of 25 days, our main
 question was whether remaining with the clutch for only 0.15% of this time
 is sufficient to increase egg survival. To address this question, we
 conducted a female removal experiment in semi-captivity and found no
 evidence that female presence improves egg hydration after oviposition. In
 a maternal commitment behavioral assay, most females promptly abandoned
 their clutches when subjected to a gentle disturbance and did not return
 to them. Lastly, a female removal experiment under field conditions
 revealed that clutches with or without mothers experienced similar levels
 of mortality, primarily caused by invertebrate predators. Through a series
 of experimental assays, we demonstrate that the short-term female presence
 in E. prosoblepon does not increase egg survival. Therefore, we argue that
 the post-oviposition behavior observed in this species cannot be
 considered parental care behavior. Our findings challenge the assumption
 that the proximity of parents and their eggs is an unequivocal indicator
 of parental care.
description: # Data from: not enough time: short-term female presence after oviposition
 does not improve egg survival in the Emerald glass frog ## Goyes Vallejos
 J, Sandoval Siles J, Calero V, Rodriguez N, Machado G. **Not enough time:
 short-term female presence after oviposition does not improve egg survival
 in the Emerald glass frog**. *Submitted to Animal Behavior* ###
 Description of the data Missing values are designated with "NA",
 for instance in cases where the data could not be obtained from behavioral
 observations, or in the case of the **removal groups** in the female
 removal experiments, there is no data associated with the female duration
 with the clutch. **I. [E.pro_embryonic_mortality.csv]** * Description:
 Datasheet containing data on embryonic mortality (i.e., number of eggs,
 number of tadpoles that died), for each of the recorded sources of
 mortality (i.e., predation, desiccation, fungal infection, failure to
 develop, rain-stripping or drowning, and unknown causes). * Format: CSV
 The columns in the datasheet consist of: 1. "Cluch_ID" = unique
 number assigned for identification for each of the egg clutches 2.
 "Trt" = treatment group corresponding to **control** or
 **removal** groups 3. "Substrate" = surface substrate where
 females of *Espadarana prosoblepon* deposited their egg cluth 4.
 "Clutch_size" = number of eggs laid per clutch 5.
 "Predation" = number of eggs/embryos that died due to predation
 6. "dry" = number of eggs/embryos that died due to desiccation
 7. "Fungal" = number of eggs/embryos that died due to fungal
 infection 8. "Failure to develop" = number of eggs/embryos that
 stopped their normal development and died 9. "Unknown" = number
 of eggs/embryos that disappeared from the clutch and their fate was
 uncertain 10. "Num_hatched" = number of eggs/embryos that
 successfully hatched as tadpoles. 11. "Num_died" = total number
 of dead eggs/embryos 12. "Prop.hatched" = proportion of
 surviving tadpoles (Num_hatched/Clutch_size) 13.
 "Prop.mortality" = proportion of embryonic mortality
 (Prop.hatched - 1)
 *----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* **II. [E.pro_female_removal_field.csv]** * Description: Datasheet containing data regarding information on behavioral data collection, morphological and behavioral characteristics of the females monitored for the female removal experiment in the field. * Format: CSV The columns in the datasheet consist of: 1. "Date" = records the specific date of observation in the 'month dd yyyy' format 2. "Amplexus_time" = time at which the pair in amplexus was found in the 'hh:mm:ss' format 3. "Clutch_ID" = unique number assigned for identification for each of the egg clutches. In this case, this number corresponds to the same identification number in the datasheet I 4. "Trt" = treatment group corresponding to **control** or **removal** groups 5. "Clutch_size" = number of eggs laid per clutch 6. "Female_ID" = female individual identification number (Visible Implant Alpha Tags) 7. "Male_ID" = male individual identification number (Visible Implant Alpha Tags) 8. "Ovi_date" = date of oviposition (when egg laying occurred) in the 'month dd yyyy' format 9. "Ovi-time" = time of oviposition (when egg laying occurred) in the 'hh:mm:ss' format 10. "fem_poq_min" = female post-oviposition quiescence (*sensu* Goyes Vallejos, J. and Hernndez-Figueroa, A. (2022)), understood as the length of time females remain with the clutch after oviposition occurred (in minutes) *----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* **III. [E.pro_female_removal_semicaptivity.csv]** * Description: Datasheet containing data regarding information on behavioral data collection, morphological and behavioral characteristics of the females monitored during the female removal experiment in semicaptivity in 2022. * Format: CSV The columns in the datasheet consist of: 1. "Date" = records the specific date of observation in the 'dd-month-yy' format 2. "Clutch_ID" = unique number assigned for identification for each of the egg clutches. 3. "Trt" = treatment group corresponding to **control** or **removal** groups 4. "Clutch_size" = number of eggs laid per clutch 5. "FemaleSVL_mm" = female snout-to-vent length measurement, in millimeters 6. "FemaleMASS_g" = female mass, measured in grams 7. "Female_ID" = female individual identification number (Visible Implant Alpha Tags) 8. "Amplexus_time" = time at which the pair in amplexus was found in the 'hh:mm:ss' format 9. "Ovi_date" = date of oviposition (when egg laying occurred) in the 'dd-months-yy' format 10. "Ovi-time" = time of oviposition (when egg laying occurred) in the 'hh:mm:ss' format 11. "fem_poq_min" = female post-oviposition quiescence (*sensu* Goyes Vallejos, J. and Hernndez-Figueroa, A. (2022)), understood as the length of time females remain with the clutch after oviposition occurred (in minutes) *----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* **IV. [E.pro_maternal_commitment.csv]** * Description: Datasheet containing data related to the maternal commitment assay. * Format: CSV The columns in the datasheet consist of: 1. "Date" = records the specific date of observation in the 'month dd yyyy' format 2. "Amplexus_time" = time at which the pair in amplexus was found in the 'hh:mm:ss' format 3. "Ovi_date" = date of oviposition (when egg laying occurred) in the 'month dd yyyy' format 4. "Fem_number' = number assigned to each of the monitored females 5. "Ovi_time" = time of oviposition (when egg laying occurred) in the 'hh:mm:ss' format 6. "Start_Rec" = time at which video recording started, in the hh:mm:ss format 7. "End_Rec" = time at which video recording ended, in the hh:mm:ss format 8. "Total_Time" = total recording time, in hh:mm format 9. "return" = where "No" means that the female did not return to the clutch after the stimulus 10. "Num_15sec" = Number of 15-s stimulus needed for the female to abandon the egg clutch. *----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* **V. [E.pro_nnd_values.csv]** * Description: Datasheet containing data related to estimation of Nearest Neighbor Distances (NDD) between eggs within a clutch. * Format: CSV The columns in the datasheet consist of: 1. "Clutch_ID" = unique number assigned for identification for each of the egg clutches. 2. "Trt" = treatment group corresponding to **control** or **removal at 0 min** and **removal at 90 min** groups 3. "Egg_num" = identification number given to individual eggs within a clutch 4. "NND" = estimated Nearest Neighbor Distance (NND), measured in mm *----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* Reference: [Goyes Vallejos, J. and Hernndez-Figueroa, A. (2022). Influence of environmental factors and body condition on the post-oviposition behavior in the emerald glass frog *Espadarana prosoblepon* (Centrolenidae). PeerJ 10:e13616](https://peerj.com/articles/13616/)