Phenotypic Plasticity and Parental Effect on Rearing of Two Diverse Habitat Environment for Laboratory Reared Sympetrum Meridionale

Abstract

Laboratory observations on rearing experiment of Odonata serve to answer many evolutionary and ecological questions. In order to evidences the role of species parental habitat provenience in the development behaviour of their offspring, we surveyed several life history traits of two rearing populations of Sympetrum meridionale (Anisoptera: Sympetrinae), coming from two different habitats across north-eastern Algeria. The first one is a RAMSAR wetland called ‘Mekhada’ (a perennial water body), and the second one is a temporary pond located at “Maouna” Mountain (1400 m altitude). Overall, the development patterns of the two populations of dragonflies vary with the type of habitat the parental generation of the species occupy (Factorial ANCOVA: all p < 0.05). Firstly, egg mortality was very low in dragonfly population inhabiting the RAMSAR wetland compared of those belonging to Maouna Mountain. Secondly new-borne larvae stemming from females inhabiting the Mekhada wetland develop more slowly than did those coming from the “Maouna” Mountain pond. Finally, larvae of Sympetrum meridionale stemming from females inhabiting the temporary wetland were heavier than those inhabiting the perennial wetland. Such studies will ads considerably to our understanding of the mechanisms that are responsible for possible effects of environmental changes on life history traits of dragonflies across the southern part of their distribution range.

Keywords

• environmental heterogeneity
• factorial anova
• parental effects
• reproductive performance